Mission Impossible: Ride and Rider
by YoursFeatherly
Summary: Alex Rider gets a new mission. To babysit the Flock. Two-action packed worlds collide. Happens after Ark Angel and Maximum Ride: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports. Rated T for material later... Mild-Medium Fax, and mild Nuzzy
1. Mission Impossible

**Hey, Just a note here real quick...**

**Iggy: Just post the story already!**

**Me: NO! Go cuddle with Fang.**

**Fang: -glares at me-**

**Iggy:-glares at me-**

**Alex: You might want to post now, before they start fighting...**

**Me: One second. **

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Alex Rider, Fang or Iggy. I do own my brain, I think, and I made this up, so this is mine! NO TAKIE!**

* * *

Chapter 1

No POV

Alex was back at MI6. Another debriefing. Another day's work as the only teenage spy.

"Now, Alex, you have another task. This should me a little more fun for you." Mrs. Jones said. The woman was sitting across from him, Mr. Blunt next to her. "You will be babysitting."

Alex raised an eyebrow and slouched in his chair. "Oh?" He said. A smile tugged at his lips.

"Yes, babysitting. And you will have to watch three peers, a twelve year old, an eight year old, and a seven year old. They will be at your hotel room. Number 612 on floor three of the Hampton." Mr. Blunt said.

"Here are the kids you will be watching." Mrs. Jones handed Alex the folder.

"You must be wary of the six year old, eight year old and the red-headed fourteen year old." Mrs. Jones said. "Now, Smithers has been dying to see you."

Alex rose from his chair and walked over to the door. "Okay." He walked out quietly, and the door shut itself. Off to Smithers.

* * *

"Alex! You are well?" Smithers asked standing. Alex nodded and smiled at the plump man. He was just so well-tempered, you just couldn't be grumpy. "Good, good. Now, here are your gadgets." He pulled out a dog bone.

"Um, Smithers, I'm babysitting. Why would I need a dog bone?" Alex asked. Smithers patted him on the shoulder.

"They have a dog, my boy. Now, the bone, it is a tracking device. Handy in case the dog looses it, or takes it with him and gets lost." He pulled out a gameboy. "This I'm sure you're familiar with. It has four cartridges. This one, the Pokemon game, is just a game. Handy in case the eight-year-old gets bored. This one, the Serpent Safari is a tacking unit, too. Now, this one, the Black Hole, is special, if you press L and R with it in you can choose functions like mini bomb or a shield." Smithers handed Alex the gadgets and a gameboy carrying case. "Oh! I have one more. This is a special gadget." Smithers held out a stuffed dragon. "This puppy can help a kid get to sleep instantly if they squeeze it hard enough."

"Thank you, Smithers." Alex said. He was careful with the sleepy-time dragon as he walked out onto the streets of London. He soon reached the hotel without incident and got the cardkey from the receptionist.

As he was walking down the hallway, he heard a commotion. From room 612. Fearing the worst, Alex slid the cardkey into the reader. The door unlocked and Alex walked in.

There were the six kids he was supposed to watch. There was an older boy sitting in an armchair near the TV. There was an older girl sprawled out on the bed. The red-head had his back to the door, fiddling with something. The twelve-year-old was arguing with the eight-year-old and the seven-year-old about something on the TV. There was a dog on top of the TV, sleeping.

The older girl had blondish brown hair and brown eyes, like Alex's own, and she seemed to be in charge.

"Angel, Nudge and Gazzy! For the trillionth time, shut up!" She snapped. The younger girl smiled innocently at her. She turned to me. "Hi. I'm Max. Welcome to the nuthouse."

* * *

Alex POV

"Who are you?" The red-head asked looking in my direction. You could tell he was blind, but he knew where you were.

"I'm Alex Rider. Nice to meet you." I held my hand out to Max, but she just glared at me. The kid in the chair smiled and got up.

"Iggy," Max pointed to the red-head. "Fang," He nodded over toward the now standing dark figure. "Nudge," She said pointing to the middle girl. "Gazzy," She said pointing to the blond boy. "Angel," Max's voice softened up a bit and she tapped the youngest on the head.

"Why are you here? Are you babysitting us? You have a funny accent. Where are you from? How old are you? What's with the stuffed dra--" Gazzy clapped his hand over Nudge's mouth.

I sighed. "I'm babysitting you, yes. I have a funny accent because I'm a London native. I'm fifteen, and the dragon is for whoever has problems sleeping." I said quickly. Fang raised an eyebrow, and Max smiled.

"Good job already." She said and whispered something to Angel. Angel said something back, and Max nodded.

"Please tell me you have money for pizza." Iggy said with a hopeful look on his face. I nodded.

"I have sixty dollars." I said. "But I think we'll only need about thirty." I said pulling out my wallet. Iggy snorted.

"You'll need all sixty." He leaned in close. "We each could eat a pizza. Angel could empty out a buffet, alone."

I choked on my breath. "A pizza each?" I asked incredulous.

Iggy nodded, "We need from three-thousand to four-thousand calories, a day." He said.

"Why?!"

"We're special. Now I'll have one meat-lovers with mushrooms."

* * *

Max POV

"He isn't evil, but…" Angel said.

"Monitor him." I said stepping over Nudge to get Total off the TV. He almost began to complain, but I wrapped a hand around his muzzle, loose, but not loose enough for him to talk. I spun around so he could see Alex, the laid him on the bed. He walked in a circle then laid down.

_Angel, broadcast please. _I asked Angel in my head. I saw her nod and felt five other minds. _Hey, guys no tell about wings. Only small things, on a need-to-know basis only, like our crazy metabolism. Especially if he wants to order food in. And no bombs Gazzy or Iggy. We want the hotel in one piece when we leave, not a quadrillion. No powers, like invisibility, fart-bomb, magnet, or shape-shifting. And Ig, no yelling out colors when you touch something 'kay? _Theyall nodded at different times as to not look conspicuous. I smiled.

"Please tell me you have money for pizza," Iggy said holding his stomach.

"I have sixty dollars." Alex said, "But I think we'll need to use only thirty." He pulled out his wallet. Iggy snorted.

"You'll need all sixty." He said as he tilted in closer to Alex and whispered something.

Alex made a choking sound. "A pizza each?!" He looked incredulous. Iggy nodded.

"We need about three thousand to four thousand calories a day." He said as Alex looked stupefied.

"Why!?"

"Because we're special. Now, I'll have one meat-lovers with mushrooms."

"I want a supreme pizza!" Gazzy piped up. "With extra pineapple!" I groaned.

"Unless you want to sleep outside, you get no peppers."

* * *

Gazzy POV

We all sat on the bed eating out of our pizza boxes. I just loved supreme pizza, but last time I had it I had farted for hours on end, so Max won't let me order it anymore…

Fang was trying not to blend in with the floor, Max was trying to stay calm, Angel was spaced out and tired looking, Nudge was quiet (which is really odd), and Iggy kept asking Alex stuff.

I finished my last piece of pizza and flopped down in the recliner. Fang followed me away from Alex and sat in front of my chair.

"You like him?" Fang asked. I shrugged.

"He's okay, I guess. He's a little weird though." I said and flipped through the channels.

"I think he's hiding something." Fang said gravely.

* * *

**So...How was it?**

**Fang: I like how I have to end the chapter. With a gravely voice. Pfff.**

**Iggy: I liked it. I'm even more obnoxious than I thought.**

**Alex: I'm clueless? About what?**

**Me, Iggy and Fang: -groan-**

**Iggy:-snaps out wings-These you nincompoop! Fang and I, and the rest of the Flock have wings! **

**Alex: Ohhhhhhhh......Wait what?**

**Me: Just R&R. It'll make Alex smarter. (Hopefully) **

**:D:D:D:D XD**


	2. Spy in the house!

**A/N**

**Me: Here I am again.**

**Iggy: Me too!**

**Alex:-whacks Iggy with big stick-**

**Fang: Haha**

**Iggy:-Glares at Fang- **

**Alex: -Pokes Iggy with big stick-**

**Me: They've been doing this all day...Maybe I should let them do something else...**

**Alex: I've wanted to go upstairs. We've been trapped in the basement too long. -Whacks Iggy again-**

**Iggy:-breaks big stick into tiny pieces- Finally.**

**Fang: -Whacks Iggy with wing-**

**Iggy: Aw, come on!****  
**Chapter 2

* * *

Alex POV

Angel was the cutest, weirdest, strongest, and most stubborn seven-year-old on the face of the planet.

"I am not tired. I want to play with Total." Total looked like he wanted to groan, if he could.

"Angel, its 11 o'clock, an hour until midnight, would you go to sleep?" I asked. She shook her head, her blond curls bouncing. Then I remembered the dragon. "You want the stuffed dragon? I think it likes Celeste." I said walking over to where I had put the dragon.

"No, you think I'm weird, and stubborn, and cute, and strong, but mostly weird." She said quietly.

"Huh?" I said oh so intelligently.

"What's MI6?" she deadpanned. I fell backward. How did she…?

"I read minds." She said simply. "What's MI6?" she repeated.

"MI6 is a spy organization." I said, trying to get up. Max had gone to the boy's room to tuck Gazzy in, and Nudge was pretty much unconscious, snoring loudly. As soon as I was on my feet, Max came in.

"G' Night, Angel, see you in the morning." I said and shot her a look, while thinking _don't Tell Max. Don't Tell Max._

Angel smiled sweetly and turned to Max. "Max, Alex is a spy."

I smacked my forehead with my palm.

* * *

Max POV

"Max, Alex is a spy." Angel said to me as I walked in.

I looked over to Alex, who was looking up at the ceiling, and groaning.

"Alex?" I asked, backing up a fraction of a step. I loosened up my wings a little and got tensed to fight.

"What?" He asked. He looked at me. "I am a spy. I was kinda sent to watch over you guys. Like a babysitter. MI6's idea." He shrugged. "I didn't know she was a stinking mind reader though. That wasn't in my files. But what was in there was that Max," He paused and his voice got a little deeper, "You are my sister."

Oh, sure. And I'm Oprah Winfrey "Yeah, right." I said and tossed a look at Angel. She had that 'its not a lie, Max' face on. "Angel, is this true?"

"Well, you do look alike, and he thinks it's true." She shrugged. "She wants to see the files."

"Angel." I warned. "Don't pry too deep."

She smiled. "Never, Max." She said.

* * *

Alex POV

"You're a spy. But you're here to guard us? Yeah, right." Fang said sarcastically. "Why does that sound like 'We're from the government and we're here to help,'?"

"It does sound kind of farfetched." Iggy said. The Flock and the spy were sitting around the table in the lobby, helping themselves to the complimentary breakfast.

"He's telling the truth!" Angel squeaked. "Show them the scar, Alex." She said. I sighed and undid the first few buttons on my nightshirt. Fang raised an eyebrow, but stayed silent, and Gazzy went into overdrive.

"That's neat looking! Where'd you get that? That looks like a spider. Or a gunshot wound. We've been shot at before. Who shot you?" He said quickly. Fang covered Gazzy's face with his hand, shutting him up.

"I don't think I can handle two Nudges." He said. Max helped herself to another serving of eggs and started eating, while Nudge yawned again, the nth time in five minutes. She took forever to wake up.

"Yeah, and to answer Gazzy, an assassin tried to kill me, and I got this doozy. And it is a gunshot wound, but it does kind of look like a spider. An enemy organization paid the assassin to shoot me." I shrugged.

"Well this is pleasant and all, but what now?" Fang asked pointedly.

"I want to go to the beach." Angel piped up. "I want to go swimming."

"Um, Angel, hun, we don't have swimsuits," Max pointed out, "And we can't exactly go out and buy them."

Angel nodded deflated. "How about I introduce you to Jack Starbright. She's a friend of mine." I asked.

Fang shrugged and looked at Max. She sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "I guess," She said, then gathered her confidence and added, "I'll go round up Gazzy and Iggy from the buffet." She got up and ran over to them.

Iggy was walking back with a muffin, and decided to shove it in his mouth whole. Paper and all. I shook my head.

* * *

Iggy POV

Everyone was busy running around and packing. I could tell because I heard them. Gazzy walked over to me and handed me an alarm clock and a half done bomb.

"Max found these in your pack." He said and ran off. I sighed and repacked it. Alex and Max barked orders to the Flock and the Flock was frantically trying to fill those out. Total was making side comments to Nudge, because he couldn't mouth off to Max directly, because Alex didn't know about the wings or Total the flying, talking, Scottie.

About a half an hour later, I was lighter a half a bomb and an alarm clock and ready to go. Alex had found a feather but was still clueless. Max would tell him later, I thought.

"Ready?" Max asked.

"Yep!" Angel answered.

"Good over here." Gazzy said.

"I'm ready, but where are we going? Who's Jack Starbright? Is she--" I know you know who that was.

"Yeah." Said Mr. Silent.

"I'm good, but I miss my bomb." I said. Max groaned and Gazzy snickered.

"Iggy, I'm sure your bomb misses you too, now everyone to the window!" Max said. There was an awkward silence.

"The window?" Alex asked.

"I meant the door. Everyone to the door!" Max tried again. Max's lying came in handy...

* * *

**Me: R&R please, to stop Fang, Iggy and Alex from going insane or killing each other.**

**Iggy: Give me back my bomb!**

**Fang: No! -Throws bomb out window-**

**Me: Fang! Are you brain-dead? That was one of Iggy's mini-big-boys!**

**Alex: Crud.**

**Boooooom!**

**Me: There goes the neighborhood. **

**Iggy: Yep. **

**Fang: Oopsie.**

**R-boom-&-boom-R-BOOOOOOOMMMM!**


	3. Saving the World and MI6

**Hey. Fang and Alex here. **

**Alex: Iggy and Jay are doing Jay's geometry homework, and she wanted us to post this chapter...**

**Fang: So, before we start fighting, here it is...**

Fang POV

"Everyone to the door." Max said. Alex gave her an odd look. She smiled innocently and she hurried the Flock out the door of the hotel.

Soon the eight of us were lined up waiting for the next bus to Alex's suburbs.

"Max, Alex, I have to go to the bathroom." Angel said. She looked at Max and gave her the 'Bambi eyes'. Max groaned.

"I'll take her. Nudge, you need to go too?" Nudge followed Max and Angel to the nearest café. I sighed.

Iggy and Gazzy had their heads together, and they were sitting on the bench, holding something between them. Total was eyeing them cautiously.

"Iggy. Gazzy." I said warningly. Alex looked over and frowned. "Bomb." I said knowingly. Gazzy and Iggy flushed and pocketed the bomb.

"Bomb?" Alex asked paling. I nodded.

"They're not going to build anymore, right, Iggy and Gazzy?" They nodded sheepishly. "You might want to search them." I said to Alex. "They like being armed."

"Uh." Alex seemed to be at a total loss of words. He swallowed and went to confiscate the bombs. He ended up with at least thirty palm-bombs, which he promptly gave to Max upon her return.

"Ig. Gaz." Max sighed. "Didn't I tell you only ten each?" They nodded sadly and Alex gaped at her.

"Ten bombs?! You let them keep bombs?" He asked incredulous, but trying not to attract attention.

"I'll explain later." She handed ten palm-bombs to Iggy and another ten to Gazzy.

The bus came a little after, and Max paid with money she swiped while taking Angel and Nudge to the restrooms.

Alex and Max sat in one seat, Iggy, Total and Gazzy next to them, and Angel, Nudge and I in the one behind Max. Angel sat on my lap and she was talking non-stop to Nudge, who was talking non-stop back.

"We have wings." Max was telling Alex.

"Wings?" He whispered.

"Yeah. We're avian-human hybrids, or if you prefer, mutants. We were 'created' back in a lab in Death Valley, California." Max was giving Alex the full story. I sat back and decided to try and nap, which was virtually impossible with Angel and Nudge talking a hundred miles per hour next to me, so I sat with my eyes closed all the way to Alex's house. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Alex POV

Right after Max finished her story of how everything happened, up to and including what was really going on in the hotel room, the bus stopped just down the street from my house.

"Time to move, come on, we're here!" I said and picked up my pack, Max and the Flock was right on my tail. Once Angel had both feet on the sidewalk, the bus started to pull away. Total leaped out, and flew over to where we were standing.

"Stupid public transportation." Total said. I gaped. Max's story must be true…

"You bet!" Angel said and looked around. "Where's your house?"

I pointed to my late Uncle Ian's house, down the drive. "There it is." I said. Nudge started yapping and I just tuned her out. I began walking toward it, and Gazzy flew past. His wings were just a shade darker then pure white, and he had a wingspan of at least ten feet. I froze, watching after him. This is going to take some getting used to.

* * *

Max POV

Jack took the wings pretty well. We had come in with them out. She tried not to stare, and she didn't even probe. She knew some things were better untouched. I immediately liked her.

"I'm Maximum Ride." I held my hand out to her. She shook it politely and I began introductions.

"That's Fang, then Iggy, that's the Gasman, Gazzy for short, Nudge, and Angel. Total's our tagalong dog." I added. She nodded.

"Tagalong. Pff. I'm not a tagalong." Total said miffed. I rolled my eyes. Jack's eyes widened.

"Don't mind him. He's a little touchy." I said. Jack looked at me weird, and I shrugged. "We're genetic mutants from America trying to save the world, but MI6 decided that we needed a babysitter while we're in Europe."

"Genetic mutants?" She repeated. Fang smirked.

"Two percent avian, ninety-eight percent human." Fang said, placing a hand between my wings and rubbing. "We have raptor vision, hearing like a hawk, and we fly. And eat a lot." Fang said.

"We also have unique perks. But the most important at the moment is Angel's ability to read minds, and control them." I looked over to Angel who was arguing with Gazzy. I rolled my eyes. Jack looked frozen.

"But she's only six." I said. Jack looked between me and Fang and sighed.

"I'm used to not being told anything, but being told this…" She shook her head. "This is nuts."

"Sadly, I agree. But then again, the people who decided to make our life totally bizarre were nuts." She looked at me sadly.

"I'll order dinner. What do you want?" She looked at me.

"Nothing with beans, but that's totally fattening and cheap. So maybe McDonalds?" I said, accounting the fact that Gazzy and Taco Bell don't agree well. She nodded.

"What does everyone want from McDonalds?" She asked loudly.

* * *

Fang POV

Jack was honestly really nice, and totally accepted us like her whacked-up kids. And everyone, including Max, took a liking to her. A couple minutes in the house and she offered to buy dinner for us.

I felt kind of bad for ordering those seven double bacon cheeseburgers, but she said 'as long as you are here, I'm going to consider you family', so then we all felt better. Jack was like Anne, with out the whole 'I'm Jeb's boss' deal, and she was a totally better cook.

When Jack got back with the food, we instantly tackled the bag for our meal.

"Get out of the bag you vultures!" Jack said and slapped each of our hands. "I'll give them to you in ten seconds. Now, sit down!" We all sat down, and Iggy missed the chair. His legs went straight into the air, and we burst into uncontrollable giggles. Well not me, but everyone else. "Iggy? You okay?" Jack managed between giggle-spasms.

"Yeah. I'm fine." Iggy stood back up, his face ten shades of red.

* * *

After dinner, we were assigned rooms. The boys were staying in Alex's room, and the girls were staying in the guest room next door.

Everyone fell asleep almost instantly, except me. I lay in my bed until eleven, and then got up. I needed to fly. I needed to fly with Max.

I snuck quietly out the room, and over to Max's room. Max and Angel were on the floor on either side of the bed, because Nudge had kicked them out. I tiptoed over to Max and picked her up. I carried her over to her window and jumped out. I fly around the house, and landed in a meadow, not far from the house. When I set her down, she woke up.

"Fang, just wake me up next time." She said quietly. I laughed, knowing it would make her happy.

"I just wanted to go for a fly with you. I also wanted to see if I could carry you this far." I smiled.

"Well, okay." She stood up and extended her wings. Her beautiful wings. I snapped myself out of it and smirked. "Race you? From here to the lake?" I asked.

"You want to race?" She raised an eyebrow and smirked. "I'll give you a race." She planted a kiss on my lips and took off. I stood there for a moment, dazed then remembered the race. I leapt into the air and caught up easily with her.

"Cheater." I said. She shrugged, and went into 'warp-drive'. I sighed. She had already won. The race and my heart.

When I landed, she was already there, sitting cross-legged.

"What took you?" She asked. And I gave her a look.

"Hey, I raced. You were just too slow." She said defensively. I sighed.

"Cheater."

* * *

Alex POV

"Max and Fang are missing! We need to call the police!" Jack was going nuts.

"Jack! Maybe they just went out for a fly!" I yelled back.

"Oh, right." She calmed down. I noticed that Gazzy and Iggy were missing, and so was my alarm clock.

"Do you know where Gazzy and Iggy are?" I asked.

"Downstairs. Why?"

"They took my alarm clock." Jack gave me a funny look.

"They are going to build bombs out of it." I said seriously. Jack's face went from confused to murderous instantly.

"If they—" She was cut off by a big explosion. We ran out of my room, and ran into a panicky Angel.

"Gazzy and Iggy are outside. They blew up all of the extra bombs! They think it's cool, but it blew a lot of water out of the lake." She ran down the stairs. "Follow me!"

Jack and I booked it outside and froze. There were fish on the bank of the lake and Iggy and Gazzy were flying back, slapping high-fives.

"Why?" Jack asked once they landed. "You blew half the water out of the lake!"  
"We didn't know how else to get rid of the bombs." Iggy said blushing. I rolled my eyes.

"Can I have my alarm clock?" Gazzy shook his head.

"We used it as a timer for our safety bomb. Set it for a minute and chucked it out over the lake."

Jack groaned. "Inside. Grounded. Don't know how long." She said and marched them inside. Now to find Max and Fang…

* * *

Fang POV

"We need to get back." I said waking Max up. We had stayed outside to look at the stars, but ended up falling asleep.

I heard an explosion sound in the distance. Max sat up, and we flew back.

"We need to get back NOW." I said. She nodded and took off. I took off right after her. I saw Gazzy and Iggy flying toward the house. A mad Jack and a grouchy Alex were waiting.

We landed after Jack took Iggy and Gazzy inside.

"There you are." Alex said. "Jack is going balistic. Iggy and Gazzy decided to dispose of some bombs, and my alarm clock." Alex looked concerned.

"Where were you two anyway?" He looked at the direction we came.

"The meadow in the forest." I said. "We were stargazing last night, and we kind of dozed off." Max nodded. No need to tell him about the race.

"Well Jack will be happy to see you." Alex ran back into the house. I had a feeling we were in trouble too.

* * *

Max POV

After we got chewed out by Jack, Fang and I hid up in the girls room.

"We need to get going with destroying that 'weapon' the Voice told you about." Fang said.

_He's right, Max. _Speaking of the Devil…

"Hold on, the Voice made an appearance."

_There's an organization called Scorpia, and they're planning on destroying the world's future. They're going to mass murder half of the population of kids. Including the Flock and Alex. _My eyes widened.

_Anything else, Voice, like where we could find Scorpia? _I skeptic about getting anything out of the Voice, but I had to try.

_Scorpia is based in Denver, Colorado for this next mission._ The Voice responded.

_Anything else? _

_Yes. Alex is going with you. _

_Why?_

_He's dealt with Scorpia before. He can help you. Get Alex to take you to MI6. _The Voice actually told me what to do. So, I guess it's important.

"Fang, get the Flock rounded up. We have to go to MI6 headquarters."

* * *

Alex POV

"Tell me again why we are going to MI6?" I asked.

"My Voice said so. The little fortune teller thing that frustrates the crap outta me." Max said.

"And it also said that Scorpia is planning on killing off half of the world's population?" I asked quietly. She nodded.

I groaned. A little disembodied Voice is in my mutant twin sister's head telling her what to do, and she was listening. Great.

"My Voice bugging you?" She asked with a smile.

I nodded. "Just a little."

"Welcome to my world."

We got off at the bus at the Royal and General Bank. Max walked up and read the plaque.

"This isn't MI6…" She started. "Where is it? The basement?"

I shook my head and smiled. "It's behind it. We have to go around." I began walking around the block. Max and Fang were walking on either side of me.

We arrived five minutes later. I pushed in through the glass double doors. The interior was plain and boring. Mrs. Jones was talking to the secretary, when she turned to look at us.

"Alex! What are you doing here?" Mrs. Jones had finished with the secretary.

"We have some insider information for you." Max said with a steel edge.

* * *

**Fang: So. Alex gets doubled up on missions.**

**Alex: And it's saving the world. How original!**

**Fang: It's original because you actually have help this time. **

**Alex: -sticks tongue out at Fang-**

**Fang: -hits Alex on the head, making him bite down on his tongue-**

**Alex: OWWW!!!!**

**Fang: Jay will post another chapter later...**

**R&R and Geometry!**


	4. Gadgets, Nightmares and Take Off

Sorry for the wait. ISAT testing week. All week. I'm just a little drained.

Iggy: You should talk. Having someone read off the answers three times isn't a walk in the park either. I hate being blind.

Fang: I hate it when you talk.

Alex: I hate it when you fight!

Me: -Duck tapes Iggy and Fang together with gags-

Alex: That works.

* * *

Max POV

"We have some insider information for you." I said with a steely edge in my voice. The woman didn't even blink.

"Ah, you must be Max. Come. We'll talk upstairs." She said crossing the reception area to the elevator. A panel slid up and revealed a hand scanner. She placed her hand on it and the light above turned on. I upped my DEFCON level to red. I hated small spaces. They made me twitchy. So you could imagine how Fang and I reacted after ten minutes in an elevator.

We burst out of the elevator, and into a small grey hallway. I hated this. To much grey, for one, another is that everything is too close together. I was practically a twitching feathery nutcase walking to the woman's office. Alex seemed to know where he was going, and he acted like he knew the woman. Maybe he did.

"In here, please." She said, politely, but with a tone that also said that you had no choice. "Take a seat."

The Flock sat on the floor. Fang has closest to the door with Total close behind, and I sat in a chair next to Alex. "Now, what information do you have for me?" She asked looking between me and Alex.

"We were told by…a little bird, that that Scorpia was going to try to mass murder half of the world's children." Alex said smiling at his insider joke.

"Scorpia?" she clarified.

"They really don't like me." Alex joked. The woman frowned.

"Sorry, Mrs. Jones." He said sadly.

Mrs. Jones. Okay.

"Uh, Mrs. Jones, how do you know who we are?" I asked. Fang beside the door, nodded.

"We have access to the School's files. They are limited, though." She paused. "And with Itex and Scorpia, it seems you will have your hands full."

"You're going to let us all go?" Alex asked. He had wide eyes. "The largest group I've worked in was at Skeleton Key, and I was the only one to make it out alive. How am I going to baby-sit and save the world at the same time?" Mrs. Jones frowned.

"You have help, Alex. Peers and family. You should be fine." She hit a spot on her desk and raised her voice ever so slightly. "Maybe you should go see Smithers now."

* * *

Alex POV

And I was off to see Smithers, again. Max was twitchy as Hell, and Fang actually looked kind of twitchy himself. Iggy was feeling both walls and walking silently.

Angel tugged on my sweatshirt. "Who's Smithers?" She asked.

"He's an old friend. You'll like him." We walked to Smithers' office. I knocked once.

"Come in!" He yelled. I opened the door and saw Smithers, overflowing the chair with his enormous body.

"Alex! Hello! And who are your friends?" I turned around and gave Max a look.

Max introduced herself. "I'm Maximum Ride." She started pointing to the rest of the Flock. "This is Fang, Iggy, Gazzy, Angel, Nudge and Total. I take it you are Smithers?" She said pointedly. He nodded, her tone going in one ear and out the other. He rolled his swivel chair over to a table.

"I heard you all are going to be facing Scorpia. You'll need some gadgets." He opened a side drawer and pulled out a stuffed bear, almost a clone of Celeste, except this one was cleaner. "This is the Baby Bear. It has a super powerful explosive in it." He looked at Angel. She frowned, as did Iggy and Gazzy.

"How powerful? Like these powerful?" Iggy took out one of his experimental hand grenades. "Two of these can cause a miniature tsunami in Lake Erie." He said gingerly handing them to Smithers.

Smithers looked astonished. "You have bombs on your person?" He asked, fingering the grenades.

"Plastic explosives." Iggy shrugged. Smithers recovered quickly.

"This next one has X-Ray vision." He handed the sunglasses to Fang. Fang looked over to Angel. She shrugged.

"I can read minds in the next room, and get floor maps from them." Fang handed the glasses back to the disappointed Smithers.

"I have a couple more yet. This one is a special tranquilizer." He held up a water gun pistol. Gazzy looked at him expectantly. "It fires a stream of tranquilizer to dissolve into the target's skin. Handy in a hostage situation." Gazzy took the pistol and checked for a safety. He clicked it and crammed it into his pocket. Smithers looked happy to be able to actually provide a gadget.

"This one is—" Smithers started.

"A set of mechanical wings?" Angel said, surprising Smithers. He pulled a backpack up onto the table.

"Yes. I understand you all have wings and can fly?" He asked eyeing Max.

She nodded. "But we were going to take a plane to the United States. That's where Scorpia's based. If Alex has metal wings, we're bound to get caught at the airport." She said gesturing to the backpack.

Smithers laughed. "I understand your reasoning, but it would be more helpful to you if he could fly right? And the backpack is made entirely out of non-metal parts, except for the zippers and the joints. But they'll hardly be noticeable. The wings are specially made with lightweight aluminum and polyurethane and fit perfectly into the pack, and have a span of about sixteen feet. They are only able to be activated when Alex is wearing the pack." He handed it to me. I took it and put it on. It felt like a light day's homework in the pack. I saw Smithers' expectant face.

"Go ahead an open them up." I frowned. He smiled. "Just think about doing it. The backpack will open them up on a thought command from you."

I concentrated. The backpack made a slight whirring sound. I looked over my shoulder. The pack had gold, white, and black feathers coming out of it on a lightweight aluminum skeleton, just like what Smithers had said. Max was smirking, and I smirked back. This was the coolest gadget in the history of gadgets.

* * *

Max POV

I was running through a familiar forest. That dream again. I groaned, but continued to run through the forest, stepping on every twig, pebble and pile of deer poop as I ran bare foot away from the Erasers. Then I noticed something new. I heard the distinct sound of helicopter blades. Erasers in a chopper?

Well. That eliminated escape by flight. I looked behind me, and saw nothing. I heard nothing. I looked down. I was in one of Alex's baggy shirts and I was wearing his backpack. I saw his pants. I ran faster, but I was breathing hard. I shouldn't be breathless. Then it dawned on me.

I was Alex. Well, this will make an interesting conversation.

I ran through the woods and dared a look up to the chopper. There were Eraser forms, and there were human forms, and they all had Uzis. I sped up, my heart beating out of my chest and my lungs trying desperately to get oxygen. I saw a large gap in the trees, and poured all of my strength into getting into it.

Turns out it was that cliff again. So I was falling and flailing until I remembered that I had the backpack on. I just thought about the wings in the pack and they unfurled, lifting me straight up. The straps strained against my body and I fought to keep level. I floundered in the air until I was level with the copter. I had confiscated one of Iggy's bombs so I was armed. I chucked it directly into the blades.

The bomb exploded and took all the blades off. The chopped was still traveling toward me, but it was plummeting to the ground at the same time. So I did what I would have if the chopper would have been one of Iggy and Gazzy's grenades. I got the Hell out of there.

As soon as I was clear of the forest, the copter crashed. Then I woke up.

* * *

Fang POV

There was an odd sound. Familiar, but still odd…Max. Max was crying. I woke up. Max was on the floor in the hotel room, because it was the boy's turn to have the beds. Max was curled up on her side crying and breathing heavily. No one else had stirred.

I put a hand on her shoulder. "Max." I whispered. She whimpered. "Max." I said a little louder, shaking her. She cried fresh tears. I sighed. She was never like this, so naturally, I had no fricking idea what I was doing. So I went with my gut. My gut told me to hold her close to comfort her. So I did.

I lifted her off the floor into my bed that I shared with Iggy. I kicked him onto the floor, which I have done in my sleep before, and laid Max down. She was shivering at this point and still sobbing. I climbed into bed and curled up next to her, my chest to her wings, my arm across her waist. She stopped shivering, and she curled into me. I smiled and extended a wing over us as a feathery bird-kid blanket.

I fell asleep holding her. She had stopped crying.

* * *

When I woke up, Max was still tucked under my wing. I pulled my wing back and got out of bed. Max's face was streaked with dried tears and her hair was matted slightly. I smiled. She just looked so peaceful now. I turned to get into my pack for some clothes, when Max stirred.

"Fang." She mumbled. I looked over my shoulder. Her breathing was still heavy and even and her eyes were closed. She was even smirking like she had just won a gold medal. Asleep. I turned my attention back to the pack.

"Fang. I —" Max mumbled again. I looked back; she had moved slightly, her hand was now up by her head, resting on her pillow, but still asleep.

"Fang, I love you." Max finally said. I saw her mouth move. I felt my cheeks warm slightly and I had the urge to go and cuddle up with her again, but I pretended like I didn't even hear her say that. I continued to shuffle through the clothes until I found my favorite t-shirt, jeans and sweater. I pulled them on quickly and hopped back into bed. Max flipped over to face me. She had her eyes open. Definitely awake.

"Hey, Fang." She said casually, as if she hadn't just then said 'Fang, I love you.' But then again, maybe her subconscious had said it for her.

"How'd you sleep? Have any interesting dreams?" I asked casually. She nodded, much to my surprise. I expected her to not say anything. Must have been pretty interesting then.

"I had that flying dream again. Except that it was different." She frowned. "In my dream, I wasn't me. I was Alex." I raised an eyebrow and looked over to Alex, who was still sleeping soundly.

"You were Alex?" I asked. She nodded.

"It was weird. I was being tailed in a chopper filled with Erasers and humans. They all had Uzis. I had the backpack on and I used it to get up level with the chopper and used one of Ig's bombs to blow it to smithereens." She paused and took a deep breath. "Then I had a dream about you dying." Ah. That made sense.

Max didn't cry, unless someone was dying that she cared about. Like me. That's why she was bawling her eyes out and why she subconsciously proclaimed her love for me.

She looked so sad, and so relieved at the same time, and like she needed a big hug. I scooted closer to her on the bed and wrapped my arms around her. She relaxed.

"You're warm." She said.

"You like it?" I asked, hugging her closer. She looked up to me and smiled. I took that as a yes.

* * *

Alex POV

I heard scuffling and Max barking quiet orders. The Flock was running around and whispering. A glance at the clock told me that it was only five in the morning.

"What's up?" I slurred. Max gave me a sideways look.

"Somebody's put a tracker in Angel's pack. We got to move," Max said tossing me a pair of clothes.

I shuffled into the bathroom and changed. When I got out, the Flock was fully prepared for take-off. Fang gave me a once-over.

"Aren't you missing something?" He asked. I looked down. I was fine. Then Iggy shoved the backpack into my arms. Oh. Right.

"Ready now." I said following Max over to the window.

Max nodded and jumped out of the window. I followed suit, remembering to flap. Soon we were soaring, away from the hotel and toward the danger. The story of my life...

* * *

So. I'll try to update soon. I'm working on making a sequel to Werewolf Epidemic. So, it may or may not be up there soon. I dunno. It should be very Fax-y.

Alex: And we all know how much Fang likes Fax.

Fang: -Death Glare-

Alex: :)

Me: I have a new 'poof'!

Alex: Oh, no.

Me: Alalalalalaka'poof'

Alex, Iggy, and Fang: -disappear-

Me: Shoot. My company's gone.

R&R if you want Iggy or Fang... Or Alex...

P.S. Review if you think my friend should read it. She doesn't want to at all.


	5. Airplane Dreams

Heya!

I'm writing a sequel to Werewolf Epidemic, if anybody reads that one…

Felix: More Fax. Great…

Me: And that's supposed to mean what?

Felix: Nothing.

Me: -glares at Felix- Anyway, I thought you all might like to know that. Max is developing an ability. Anyone able to guess what it is gets a doughnut. –holds up tray of doughnuts-

Felix: They're good.

Alex POV

We landed in the cover of night, near Heathrow Airport. I had flown for the first time in my life without a plane. Parachuting multiple times doesn't count as flying.

Max held up a hand and motioned for us to get down. We were trying to go in unnoticed. Being in the restricted area doesn't help, though. And guess what? That's where we were. Angel stiffened beside me and the hair on the back of my neck stood straight up.

"What do we have here?" A melodic voice said behind us. Max froze. Angel shut her eyes and the man dragged her to her feet.

"Leave her alone, you overgrown mutt!" Fang snapped a fist out, catching the Eraser in the jaw. He flew back, Angel still in hand.

Angel glared at the Eraser coldly. She was using her mind-control. Max flew over and kicked the Eraser, sending him flying. He released his hold on Angel and she sprinted back to the Flock. Total growled.

"There's more." He said and shook his tiny black wings out.

"Seven." Angel confirmed.

"Then let's bust a move!" Max said and I whipped my wings out.

"U and A. Now!" Fang said with a deadly calm. He launched into the air and I followed.

_What an interesting start to the mission._ I thought sarcastically, and I was rewarded with a giggle from Angel.

* * *

Total POV

Alex was a little flighty for a not-bird-kid, but he made up for it by being smart. When we got into the airport, he decided that we needed to clean up, to blend in more. I guess dirt-scuffed, grass-stained, and sweaty, smelly kids were pretty noticeable. He also suggested that we sit across the plane, and that we keep in contact through Angel, so it's less conspicuous and harder to trap all of us.

Although I was supposed to sit with Iggy because I'm his 'guide-dog'. Angel had persuaded the ticket seller to give us six coach class tickets for free. We waded through the crowd.

"Max, I'm hungry." I whined. Max shot me a look and I shut up, but the other kids nodded.

She sighed and looked over at the food court. "I have a couple wallets worth…" She said and they cheered quietly. "What do you all want? I have a ten, a twenty, a five, and thirteen singles." She said going through the contents of the three wallets. I felt sorry for the people who lost their wallets to Max, but I was also really happy that we had money for food.

* * *

Fang POV

We all skipped past security, thanks to Angel, and we hopped on the nine o'clock flight to New York, New York. Max sat on the seat across the isle from me, Iggy and Total were sitting near the exit, Alex was with Angel in the rear near the bathroom, and Nudge and Gazzy were bugging the stewardess for food from the middle isle. The stewardess got red-faced and stormed away.

I had time to think 'uh-oh', when the engines started. The pilot came on overhead.

"Ladies and gentlemen please fasten your seat belts and prepare for take-off. We will be departing soon." Max tossed me a look that said 'I hate planes.' I totally agreed with her. I'd rather fly across the ocean with Total and Alex without stopping.

And that's saying something.

* * *

Max POV

I hated planes. They were pretty irrelevant, you know, because of my wings? Plus the claustrophobia, I was a twitchy, nervous, feathery emotional-wreak by the time we leveled out. I was mentally exhausted. But I didn't want to sleep. I had to stay awake; I needed to care for the Flock.

The exhaustion spread into my muscles making them numb iron bars. I looked over to Fang.

"I'm going to try to take a nap." I said and he nodded. He did a quick 360, even looking at the smelly, fat guy next to him, who decided to snore. I smiled and he frowned.

"I'll keep an eye out. Go to sleep." I let my head fall back against the headrest, and shut my eyes. I was asleep within a minute.

_It was dark and I was in a cage. I mentally groaned. I looked around. A laboratory like building, with white walls, chrome machinery and cages stacked floor to ceiling with humanoid forms. _

_The School. I was in the School. I looked down at my hands. A scar tilted across my chubby left palm from my thumb to my middle finger. Fang's hands. _

_Oh, now I was Fang. I was another guy. I swear my dreams should at least make me the same gender._

_The lab door opened, and a whitecoat stepped in, carrying a small figure; that had white wings with brown spots, speckles, streaks and splatters. Me. I groaned mentally again. This was really weird. I'll just pretend I'm Fang. It'll make it easier on me and you._

_The whitecoat placed the unconscious seven-year-old me into a cage across from me, and came over to my cage. It was a familiar face; Jeb's friend, Kirk. Kirk was another whitecoat that treated us fairly well, but he was still on Their side. _

_He took me into a large room with a table and made me climb onto it. He laid me out flat and took off the cotton hospital gown. I was in my briefs and on what seemed like an operating table. Kirk leaned over me and held up a needle and flicked it. My eyes widened. A big needle, I thought. I flinched as he shoved it into my arm. Anesthesia, I thought panicked. _

_He smiled devilishly. He was one of Them; he had no mercy. He picked up a scalpel and cut my chest open. I tried to scream, to get away, but the anesthesia had already kicked in. He looked curiously at my open chest, and grabbed a needle and thread, and sewed me back up. He flipped me over on my back. He cut my wing. _

_I mentally told myself that it was a dream, a nightmare, and that I could wake up anytime. But I couldn't. I was stuck in a nightmare without an alarm clock._

_Then the nightmare dissolved. I was in blackness. This can't be good, I thought panicked._

The world snapped back into itself. I wasn't floating in the darkness, and I wasn't in Fang's body. I was me, and I was sitting on an airplane, with a concerned Fang holding my hand.

"You okay now, Max?" He asked quietly. I sucked in air I realized I'd been holding. I nodded carefully. My neck was stiff. Heck, my whole body was stiff. He sighed, like he'd also been holding his breath.

"What happened?" He met my eyes, black to brown. I shivered.

"Bad dream." I said and I felt a tear roll down my cheek. He nodded.

"You want to talk about it?" He cocked an eyebrow. I nodded.

"I was back at the School." I said and Fang looked over at the snoring fat guy. "And I was you." I added quietly. Fang looked back at me. Another hot tear rolled down my face and I angrily rubbed at it. He dug in his pocket and pulled out a tissue. I took it and wiped down my face.

"You were me like you were Alex?" Fang asked quietly. I nodded vigorously. He had a troubled expression on his face. "What else?"

I shook my head.

"Max, you know, it won't go away unless you get it off your chest." Fang said softly. I sobbed and angrily swatted at the tears with the soggy tissue.

"There was Kirk, and he—" I choked on tears. "He cut you up." I sobbed. Fang tensed in his chair, and his hand tightened on mine. "He cut your chest and wings." I dropped my hand with the tissue and let the tears come. "But since I was you, he was cutting me. And it hurt."

Fang climbed out of his seat and kneeled on the floor next to me. "Max, that never happened, and it won't. To you or me." He said rubbing my back between my wings.

"I won't let it." He said confidently. I nodded. He rubbed my back while I cried until he fell asleep, and I cried myself asleep.

* * *

Fang POV

I have never, ever, ever seen Max so traumatized by anything. Let alone a nightmare. She had been bawling. Bawling! Max hadn't shed a tear since we left the School, but I guess those had been dammed up and saved until that moment.

And I hadn't been embarrassed in my life until the stewardess found me collapsed on the floor next to Max's chair with a hand on her back.

"Excuse me, sir." She said with a tap of her foot to my leg. "Would you kindly move?" I had twitched awake and looked up at her.

"Yeah. Sorry." I had climbed back up into my chair while she was giving me a strange look. My arm had fallen asleep and was now prickling with pins and needles. "Sorry." I muttered again and looked over to Max, who was now sleeping peacefully.

She stirred slightly and smiled. I smiled too. But we still had a couple hours till landing in Cleveland. And anything could happen in a few hours…

* * *

And now I clicky the posty button! –clicks-

Ta-DA!

Felix: Wonderful. Now I can go back to bed.

Me: Not quite. You still owe me that homework assignment.

Felix: -rolls eyes- Seriously? You want me to do your geometry?

Me: No silly, my history packet.

Felix: -eyes widen- Oh, man.

Little Brother: Jay! Mom wants you to get to bed!

Me: I will in a minute! -to Felix- Care to join me?

Felix: I'm going to sleep on the floor tonight.

Me: That may not be a good idea. I'm having my sleepover in an hour. I invited eight girls. Six are coming.

Felix: Crapola.

R&R and sleepover party!


	6. Into the Night

Fangy loves Maxie!

Fang: -glares at me-

Felix: Come on Fang. Lighten up.

Fang: No.

Me: Again I say: Sour puss. You may have noticed I got Fang back!

Fang: -Dripping sarcasm- I'm ecstatic.

Me: Oh, Fang! Go get the mop!

Fang: Why?

Me: Because you dripped sarcasm on the floor!

Felix: Cute…

* * *

Max POV

As much as I hated planes, this one was okay. I could actually sleep, and talk to Fang without eavesdroppers, and they allowed us four trays of airplane food. Grated that was Angel's doing, but I wasn't going to complain.

"You okay now, Max?" Fang asked digging into his third tray of breakfast.

I nodded and winced at the pain in my cramped neck. "I'm just a little stiff."

He raised an eyebrow like he knew I wasn't telling him everything and shrugged it off. That's the good thing about Fang. When you want to talk, he'll listen, and if you don't want to tell him something, he'll let it go.

The stewardess came over and took away Fang's empty tray and refilled his glass with orange juice. "We'll be landing in a few minutes. Please tell me if you need anything." She flirted.

I rolled my eyes and she cleared away my tray too. Fang looked at the fat sweaty guy, who was snoring again and back to me.

"What are you thinking?" He asked holding out his hand. I grabbed it and leaned back in my chair.

"I'm thinking that you're already taken and that she's too old for you." I said with a smile. Fang grinned and shook his head.

"Okay, what else are you thinking?" He sobered. I sighed.

"I think I'm developing a new ability." I said carefully. "You know how Angel developed all those powers? Like that." I said.

"What ability?" He asked.

"I dunno. Maybe the dreams are some sort of ability." I guessed and shrugged. "I dunno."

"Well. We'll keep an eye out." Fang said and winked. I giggled like a little girl.

* * *

Alex POV

We landed at the airport in the afternoon. Angel got us through customs, security and the food court without much trouble, other than Total begging for food from Max every ten seconds.

"Max? I'm hungry." Total complained. I sighed while Max ignored him. One…two…three…four…five…six…seven…eight…nine…ten.

"Max? I want food." Total said. One…two…three…

Iggy sneezed and yanked on Total's leash, choking him. Total coughed.

Seven…eight…nine…ten. Total coughed.

"Max, can we have Dairy Queen?" Gazzy asked. I hit my forehead with my hand.

"No." Max looked around. "Angel, Hun, cam you find a person with a stuffed wallet anywhere?"

Angel nodded. She shut her eyes and took a deep breath. She pointed. "Over there. He's got two hundred bucks."

"Thanks Angel!" Max said and dragged Iggy and Total along with her. I wasn't for Max's plans but as Fang says, they're usually the only way to get something done. So Max was getting us two hundred bucks for food. Fang skimmed the area and sat down near a McDonald's outlet. The rest of us, Gazzy, Nudge, Angel and me, followed.

"I want to get moving." I said sitting next to Fang. My stomach growled. "After we eat of course." I added.

He nodded. "I hope Max picks up more than just two hundred."

"Why?" I asked. Two hundred dollars seems like a good amount.

"We need two hotel rooms, each at about a hundred, so we need more than two hundred. Especially if you want to eat." He said looking at Max who was now telling Iggy a plan. Gazzy and Nudge were playing around in the square and Angel was watching.

"Oh." I said smartly. The flock ran like clockwork. Everyone did everything. And I was just kind of there.

"Max needs small change too. I don't think McDonald's would like a hundred dollar bill from a fifteen year old." Fang nodded.

"There's a change machine over there." He pointed to a corner. I nodded. If I squinted, I could see that the machine took hundreds.

I looked over to where Max was and Iggy tripped 'accidentally'. The man turned, distracted, and Max slipped his wallet out of his pocket. Like I said: Clockwork.

* * *

Iggy POV

Even though Max's plans worked, I didn't like them. Except for the rare one that I got to blow some Erasers up or short-circuit some Flyboys or something. Right now, Max's plan involved me falling and hurting myself. Which was harder said than done. Total had to sit down, and I had to trip over Total. Which would hurt and embarrass both of us, but as Fang usually says: Max's plans are the only way to get something done.

Max sneezed. That's the cue. Total sat down and I kept walking. I tripped over Total and stuck my hands out to prevent my face from smashing into the tile. I collided painfully with the floor and Total squeaked. I said a few expletives in my head and groaned. Total licked my hand.

The cue that Max has the wallet. A hand helped me up.

"Thanks," I grumbled in a general direction and walked off.

Max met up with me. "Sorry, Ig. I'll get you an extra ice cream." I nodded.

A fall for an ice cream. I'll take that any day.

* * *

Max POV

Another pickpocket plan that worked. I've picked pockets all over, and the U.S. carries more money than anyone else. Plus all the credit cards. The Flock and I were set. I had to get two wallets for the cash; two hundred-dollar bills would be just a little too suspicious. Luckily Fang had found a change machine, which we were trying to use.

"Maybe you should flip it around." Angel suggested as I tried to un-crease the bill on the edge of the machine.

I flipped the bill over and shoved it into the slot. Alex sighed and Fang rolled his eyes.

"I know I'm not exactly tech savvy, but give me a break. Nudge could you come here?" Nudge stepped out from behind Fang and walked over to the machine.

"You put the bill in like this," She said taking the bill from me. She flipped it over then turned it around and slid it carefully through the slot. The machine whirred and spit out ten tens.

"See?" She said. I nodded and went back to the wallets. One had another hundred, another had a couple credit cards and the last one had two twenties, a ten and a couple nickels. I shoved the other hundred into the machine and it spat out the tens.

"Now, we can get food." I walked back over into the food court. Iggy sat in a chair near the Panda Express place.

"What're we goin' to eat?" He asked and Total sniffed the air.

"I want that Chinese food." Total piped. I groaned and shot him a pointed look. He clamped his mouth shut.

"Chinese food does sound good." Iggy responded and faced my general direction.

"I want Dairy Queen though." Gazzy whined.

"McDonald's is good…" Nudge said laying her head on the table.

"Whatever's the cheapest." Fang shrugged.

I groaned. "How about I give you each a twenty and you go buy your own food." I said and they nodded. "Have at it."

They snatched a twenty from my hand and ran off. Alex took a twenty, but didn't move.

"You want anything?" He asked looking around. I shrugged.

"A large hot fudge sundae from Dairy Queen, please?" He nodded and ran off.

* * *

Fang POV

After a good meal of assorted ice cream, burgers and pastas it was time to hit the road. Max led the way through the crowd, and through the fancy automatic doors.

It was a clear, warm, moonless night. Perfect for flying. Alex ran over to a field and popped the wings out from his handy-dandy backpack. Angel and Gazzy followed and launched into the air. Alex leaped, forgot to flap and face-planted.

Max's laugh rang out loud and clear in the warm air.

Tonight's gonna be a good night…

* * *

And ta-da!

It's posted the same day as chapter five, you lucky readers.

Felix: Stop talking and post already.

Me: No.

Alex: -snores-

Me: I'm slowly getting my group back from my latest 'poof'!

Fang: And I'm not too happy. Or occupied.

Me: Go play with Casper. He likes attention.

Casper: -Woof-

Fang: No.

Alex: -snores- Iggy—in—warehouse

Felix: That was convenient.

Me: Off to fetch Igster!

R&R and hostages


	7. From Voice with love

Sorry I took awhile to update.

School; Homework; F.N.O

Fang: Friday Night Out kept you from updating?

Alex: Obviously…

Aaron: What am I doing here?

Iggy: You got Jay-napped. She liked your book…

Aaron: ??

Felix: Don't worry. You'll get back soon. She'll try another 'poof' and send us back. Again.

Me: Ahem. I'm right here.

Fang, Iggy, Alex and Felix: -whistling and looking innocent-

Aaron: Uh…

Me: Ala-ka-shut-up-poof!

Everyone: -Falls asleep-

Me: Finally!

* * *

Max POV

After we got away from the airport, we decided to crash in some more trees.

Thank God for forest preserves.

Angel, Nudge and Total were curled up in a fork of a tree, Fang and I shared a thick branch for watch, and Alex, Iggy and Gazzy were scattered along the upper branches of the larger trees.

I sighed. Running from unseen, possibly unreal, danger. My sad, short life in a freaking _nut_shell.

_Max, Max, Max. _The Voice tsked. _You are not running from unreal danger. The danger is very real. And now, you just need to face it. And eliminate it. _

I mentally groaned. _And let me guess, _I thought sarcastically, _I just have to follow what you say? My instinct? Jeb? And the enemy is Itex right? Well, they're dead and gone. That's a 'been there, done that' situation. _

The Voice hesitated. _Max. I need you to follow your instinct and do what you think you need to. Even if that includes not listening to me…_

That took me off-guard. The Voice actually giving me a choice? What was the world coming to?

_Jeb? _It sounded so much like him…

_No. Jeb died._

I froze, and my breath caught in my chest. Fang glanced worriedly at me and I sucked in a breath and shook my head.

_How? _I wasn't expecting an answer, but the Voice seemed talkative now.

_Your new enemy killed him. Scorpia had teamed up with Itex. Then when Scorpia had what it wanted, it killed off all of Itex. Including Jeb._

_ Scorpia?_ The name seemed familiar.

_ Alex has been fighting against them. He knows them. Scorpia is dangerous, worse than Itex could ever have been. But you—and the flock—have to face Scorpia. Or the world faces another apocalypse. _Oh. That Scorpia…

_ But what do we do from here? _I felt like a wimp asking the Voice for instruction, but I trusted my instinct, which told me to suck it up and ask.

_ Go back to the E-shaped house. It was a perfect refuge. It was hidden from radar, and didn't appear to the satellites. Trust this._

_ Tomorrow morning. _I was too tired to fly anymore tonight.

If the Voice could nod, it probably did.

_You're strongly back on your path. Stay on it and you're golden. _

_ Okay._ Maybe I would get some answers if I did.

_ Bye, Max. Get some rest._

That was an interesting conversation. The Voice gave some straight answers, and it had said Jeb was dead. And to go back to our first actual home. Back to the only place we had ever really felt safe.

I was looking forward to tomorrow morning.

* * *

Fang POV

"You're okay, Max?" I asked her. She had choked out of nowhere, then a couple minutes later sunk into complete unconsciousness. Which was very un-Max-like. She was a light sleeper, courtesy of paranoia.

She nodded, her soft brown-blond curls bouncing. "I'm sure." She leaned against the trunk of the tree and sighed. "I have a plan." She said.

"Does it involve fainting again?" I asked. She shot me a look, and I looked away innocently. "Well, does it?"

"No. It involves us going back to the mountains. The E-shaped house." She said.

"The E-shaped house? Are you nuts? Never return to a place you've already been. You made that rule." I said. She glared at me.

"We're going. The Voice said to." She looked like she wanted to say more, but she clamped her mouth.

"Wake everyone up. We're leaving in twenty,"

* * *

We were on the ground, lined up with our supplies. Twitchy was we always were before takeoff.

Max was going through a mental check list.

"Food?" She asked. We all nodded.

"Clothes?" She looked at Iggy. He nodded, sensing her gaze.

"Cleaned in the river." He said.

"Weapons disposed of?" She said firmly. Gazzy and Iggy groaned. They reached into their pockets and pulled out twenty cherry-bombs.

"I told you, only ten at a time, each." She scolded. Then she shook her head. "You know, what? Keep them. We might need them."

Everybody showed their surprise. Max never let Iggy and Gazzy carry bombs, unless totally necessary. Like when we're facing the big baddies face to face.

She seemed out-of-it. "U and A. Come on!" She launched into the air.

I hesitated. I trust Max to the point where if she thought that we had to plunge into an active volcano, I would have followed her, but she had changed recently. What was going on? What wasn't she telling us?

I mentally slapped myself for not asking what was up when she had choked last night. Maybe she would have told me…

I ran and threw myself into the air after her.

I would ask her later.

* * *

Max POV

Fang seemed hesitant to follow me. But I wasn't going to let him split the Flock apart again. We both had gone through Hell because of it. And I wasn't willing to lose him again.

He had a point though. I had said, that we weren't going to return to a place we'd already been to. Even if we flew over it.

But here we were.

I looked back. Fang and everyone else were way behind me, and Fang had a worried look on his face. Alex and everyone else just looked confused.

I held back.

"What's wrong, Fang?" I asked when he came close, only loud enough for him to hear.

"You." He answered.

Now I was confused. "How?"

Fang and I flew side-by-side and talked only loud enough for the other to hear.

"You're acting very un-Max-like." He said and I stared at him.

"How?"

"After last night in the tree, you've been acting different. Not like the sarcastic, witty Max we know and love." Fang said. He sighed. "What did the Voice tell you?"

I swallowed. "That Jeb was murdered by Scorpia and that we should go back to the house." I felt a lump rise in my throat. "And that Scorpia had teamed up with Itex until they had gotten what they wanted. Then they eliminated all of Itex." I looked away.

"Holy (Insert any cuss you think appropriate here)" Fang said quietly. "No wonder you've been acting different."

"It also said that we should follow what we think is right. Even if that means not listening to the Voice." I said carefully. Fang stopped in mid-flap.

"We're on our own basically?" He asked. I nodded.

"That's how I took it."

"Well, (Insert another cuss here)" Fang glared at the ground.

"We need to get to the house. It's cloaked. Jeb did it so we couldn't be pinpointed." I said, and Fang nodded his approval.

"Yeah. Let's move." He poured on the speed, and I followed, causing the rest of the flock to step it up a couple notches.

We flew like that in formation until we passed the Colorado border, where we found The Garden of the Gods and took refuge on top of one of the larger formations.

My only goal now is to keep the flock alive and happy.

* * *

And cue dark mood.

Felix: You need to stop letting all of that MCR, Linkin Park, and Muse go to your head.

Me: No! I like their music.

Iggy: It sounds like just screaming to me…

Me: Uh, huh. And I can sing.

Fang: Maybe you should tie him up to something naked.

Iggy: Uh, oh.

Alex: -snores-

Me: How about Alex?

Alex: -snorts, snots and snores-

Fang: Okay then…I have the rope!

Me: I got the duck tape!

Iggy: Oh, man.

R&R cream puff-poofs for anyone who suggests a form of cruel and unusual torture for hostages!


	8. Snakebites

Me: I miss Aaron.

Fang: You let him leave?!

Iggy: Why am I tied up?

Felix: -shrug-

Me: At least I have you guys…

Alex: Uh…

Felix: Okay…

Fang: Um.

Iggy: Could someone please untie me?  
Me: No!! –whacks Iggy-

Iggy: Owww!!!

Felix: -sneaks over and posts chapter-

* * *

Alex POV

Max was acting strangely. But, once we were at the safe-house, she came to her senses.

"Now, we need some sort of food. Nudge, go with Fang and Iggy to scavenge food. I'll run a load of laundry. Total, Angel and Gazzy, go set up the bedrooms, and clean out the fridge." Max said, already back on her game.

"Alex, you go clean out Jeb's old room. You can sleep there." I nodded.

I walked down the hall past the rooms that were already taken by everybody to the dusty door of Jeb's old room.

I cautiously opened the door and turned on the light.

And screamed.

* * *

Fang POV

We were heading out the door, pails in hand for gathering berries, when there was an unholy scream from the house.

We immediately sprinted to the source of the sound. Alex was lying on the ground surrounded by large snake-like things.

Great. Snakes. At least it wasn't Ari again.

Gazzy and Angel were right behind me with Max. Alex had been bitten twice in the arm.

I jumped on several snakes heads, killing them instantly, and aggravating the others. There were at least twenty snakes.

Max started flinging them into the walls and snapping their spines, trying to get to Alex. The door to Jeb's room was open, and more snakes were pouring out. I jumped over and slammed the door on one snake's head. Max had kneeled next to Alex and was getting Iggy to check him out. Angel was glaring at the snakes.

They all went limp. She was getting scarier with the mind control. She made the snakes die without even touching them.

Alex's breathing was ragged. His eyes fluttered open slightly. "Trap." He said and his head fell back onto the floor.

Max's head drooped. "We need to get him to a hospital." She said with a slight waver in her voice.

"I agree." I picked him up, while Iggy took his backpack.

Max walked ahead and opened all the doors, so I could carry Alex.

This couldn't turn out well.

* * *

Max POV

At the hospital, Alex was taken right into the ER.

The rest of us were getting twitchy from the antiseptic smell and the tension of waiting to see if Alex was okay.

Finally, a doctor came over.

"You are, um, Alex's family?" He asked skimming over our assorted appearances.

I nodded. "Is he okay?" I asked. I wasn't going to lose another brother.

"He should be. We've given him the anti-venom. He'll need to stay here for about a week, though. Just in case." The doctor looked worried. Like he himself didn't believe his words.

I nodded anyway.

"I just have one question." He said and I looked up. "What did he do to get that scar?"

"He had a bad bike accident. He lost control." I said remembering Alex's story about his scar, versus what had really happened. A sniper bullet that had almost killed him.

The doctor didn't look convinced, yet he let it drop. "You're welcome to see him now though. He woke up."

"Thank you." We followed the doctor past several other rooms until he held open a door, where Alex was lying on a hospital bed with a sad smile on his face.

"I'm sorry." He said weakly.

"For what? Getting bitten? You couldn't help it." I said reassuringly. He coughed slightly.

"No. I knew something like that was going to happen. Something bad." He coughed again.

"You okay?" I asked him, sitting on his bed. He laid his head back onto the pillow and sighed.

"I feel like sh—crap, but I think I'll live." He smiled weakly. "I just need to sleep, I think." He shut his eyes and relaxed. "Bye, Max."

I held his hand. His breathing evened out and his grip relaxed on my hand. I gently pulled my hand away and dragged a chair over to him. Fang met my eyes and saw my intention. I was going to watch Alex, and I needed him to watch over the flock. He nodded, tapped Iggy's hand once and ushered the flock out the door.

I almost felt bad for sending them away, but I had to watch Alex. He was my brother, and I had treated him like the rest of the flock lately. Like a kid I was supposed to baby-sit, when he was supposed to be older than me.

I held onto his hand and started talking to him.

"I hope you'll be okay Alex, because I need you. We all do. Just live and be okay." I said and laid my head on his bed. I was asleep when the nurse came in to check on him.

* * *

Alex POV

I felt like pudding. Pudding with nerve endings, pudding in great pain.

I opened my eyes to see a dimly lit room, and several IV bags with tubing in my arm.

I blinked. I was in the hospital. I did a systems check. I felt like shit. I also noticed a warm sensation near my left hand. I glanced over.

Max was holding my hand, asleep in a chair she had pulled up.

"Max." I croaked. "Max."

"Huh?" She drowsily lifted her head.

"Alex. You're awake." She said groggily.

"Yeah." I scooted higher on the bed, causing a pain to shoot up my right arm.

"Ah, shit!" I said and sucked in a breath. "My arm!"

Max looked at me concerned and pressed a button on a remote near the wall. It lit up.

"The nurse is coming." She said, and looked at my right arm all bandaged up. She sighed.

"You okay to travel?" She asked when the nurse opened the door. I gave her a look.

"Okay, okay. I get it." She said, letting go of my hand. "We'll wait a little longer."

"What's up, Alex?" The nurse asked.

"I hurt." I said lamely. She nodded.

"I'll be right back." She said. She shut the door halfway. Iggy popped his head in.

"How's he doing?" He asked.

"I'm awake." I said. He nodded.

"I'll tell everyone else." He left, and the nurse came back with two pills.

"Take these. They'll knock you out, and help with the pain." She said handing my two capsules and a cup of water.

"Thanks." I took the pills, and I was soon back in the comforting darkness.

* * *

Fang POV

The flock was getting anxious. Alex had been down for the count for three days. At one point, I had taken the flock back to the house to help clean out Jeb's old room. The snakes had evacuated, leaving only egg remains, poop, shed skins and remains of long dead prey.

After we had washed the room from top to bottom, we had gone back to the hospital for Max and Alex. Total had stayed home because no dogs were allowed.

I swear I'm going to die early from stress, and a hole in my stomach from ulcers because of situations like this.

"Can we leave now, Fang?" Nudge asked. I shook my head.

"I told you guys, we're not leaving without Max and Alex. Even if we have to wait another couple days."

Nudge nodded silently. Gazzy and Iggy were sitting silently in a corner and passing something back and forth. Angel was napping in a corner.

The flock was worried, and I couldn't help but wonder if this was what it was like when I had to be hospitalized.

* * *

Now I'm going to try to get Alex fixed up because he really did get bitten by a snake.

Alex: Ow.

Fang: Why did you even try to catch it?

Felix: He does stupid things for stupid reasons.

Alex: Thanks.

Felix: You're welcome.

Me: Alex hold still. This may sting a little.

Alex: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

R&R for hospital release


	9. Birdkid Addition and Takeoff II

You know what? I'll just post the story.

Everyone else decided it's not worth getting tortured for contact to the actual world, even if it is through FanFiction.

So they're playing guitar hero Van Halen upstairs.

Fang: $!) ! I flunked out again!

Iggy: Ha ha.

Felix: Now on to Panama!

Alex: No its Jump!

Me: -rolls eyes- Boys.

Here's the chapter…

* * *

Max POV

As soon as Alex was well enough to sneak out of bed, which he did several times, we checked out of the hospital, to go back to the house.

Soon after we landed, we told Alex to get some rest in his new bed, and to take it easy.

"But—" He started, but I held up a hand to cut him off.

"No. You were just hospitalized for five days. You need rest." I said leaving no room for argument. He groaned, but otherwise obeyed.

I made sure everybody was busy. Including Alex, who was flipping through TV stations to see which ones worked and which channels had good shows.

I was keeping myself trying to remember what the voice had said previously about Scorpia.

Then I remembered. Scorpia was going to be based in Denver, a couple of miles from here. And they were trying to kill the flock, Alex and mass-murder the children of the world.

And Scorpia must have had something to do with the snakes. And the Voice…It had warned me that I may not want to follow its instructions.

We were playing into Scorpia's plans. And that needed to stop now.

"Fang." I called. Fang looked up from doing the dishes.

"What?" He asked putting a plate deftly into the dish drainer.

"We have to leave. Now." I said sharply. "Scorpia's onto us." I said and looked for stuff to pack. I grabbed the wallets off the counter.

"Scorpia's onto us?" He repeated, taking off the blue rubber gloves.

I nodded. "The snakes. They're trying to kill us off. We need to move. They know we're here." I said looking around for the packs.

"But Alex…" He said and I froze. I swore mentally. Alex. He was technically disabled until he recovered from the snakebites.

"We'll have to carry him. We leave now."

Fang nodded sadly. "I hate to leave this place again." He said quietly.

"Maybe we can come back sometime. After Scorpia's dead and gone too." I said. He looked hopeful, and then he put his mask of indifference back up.

"I'll round everyone back up." He said and walked off.

I sighed. I had just come home, and just as soon needed to leave. I hated being on the run.

* * *

Fang POV

"Get your stuff together." I said over Gazzy and Iggy, who were passing a wiry thing back and forth, which was probably another bomb. They froze for a second. Then Iggy put the bomb away in his pocket.

"Why?" He asked rising.  
"Scorpia knows we're here. So we're leaving." I said repeating what Max had said to me. The boys frowned, but they stood and went to their room, no doubt following their orders.

Now to go to Angel and Nudge and Total. They were in the girl's shared room, playing with Angel's many forgotten stuffed animals.

"Yo." I said over them. Angel continued to play with the animals, while Nudge looked up surprised.

"Fang. What's up?" She asked sitting up a little.

"We're leaving." I said. "Gather the essentials." I said and walked off toward Alex's room.

I hated being the messenger. In my world, when I was the messenger, I always, always got shot. Especially when I was delivering a 'Max message'.

I knocked on Alex's door. He

"What, Fang?" He asked bored sounding.

I opened the door. "How'd you know it was me?" I asked.

"I don't know. What you want?" He responded.

"Max needs you ready to move. Scorpia's onto us. They sent the snakes." I said and Alex's face drained of all color.

"Okay. Let me just get up here…" He went to sit up.

There was something—different about him…

Then it hit me. He had wings, but he wasn't wearing the backpack. How could he have wings?

"Uh, Alex?" I said. "Check your back out." I said shutting the door, and yelling mentally to Angel to get Max to Alex's room.

He looked drowsily over his shoulder, and froze. There were gold primaries, and white secondaries, and black feathers along the top. Small light down crept their way up his back to his shoulder blades.

"Holy crap." He looked over to me. I was just as clueless as he was, so I just shook my head and shrugged.

The door to Alex's room opened behind me, and a cautious Max stepped in, instantly seeing Alex's new wings.

"What—huh—how?" She said looking between me and Alex.

"Hi, Max. We're clueless too." I said with mock cheerfulness. Max looked at me like she wanted to slap me, and then crossed the room to Alex.

"You okay?" She asked. He nodded and tried to fold the wings back in. They twitched and smoothly fitted themselves against his back.

"What was in that medicine?" Alex asked with a nervous chuckle. I smiled and Max shook her head.

"Maybe there were undercover Itex personnel there, and they were trying to 'help' in the way that really doesn't help." I said earning another 'I'm going to slap you now' look from Max. Then she softened.

"That doesn't sound that bad." She said.

"So do I get a slap or a kiss?" I asked, and Alex frowned. I looked away innocently.

"Neither. Yet." She added.

"But—" I started. She held up a hand.

"Voice imparting fortune cookie knowledge." She said. Alex collapsed back onto his bed and groaned.

A couple minutes later, Max shook her head.

"Itex altered the snakes. Alex was treated against the venom, but not the genes in the venom that they put there." She said and Alex's breath caught in his chest.

"It's official. I hate snakes." He said with a sigh.

* * *

Alex POV

Well. I had just recently gotten two snakebites, recovered and found out that I have wings from those bites. The wings are really neat, but I didn't like those snakes. In fact, that put me off all reptiles for eternity. So now that I'm able to run (Don't get close to Iggy when he's in a bad mood and has grenades) Max and Fang are trying to teach me how to fly.

"Tilt your left wing." Max instructed, and I tilted it up and turned to the right. She sighed.

"Down." She said and I swooped back around to the left.

"Now tilt you right wing down." She yelled up. I turned smoothly to the right.

"Good! Now Fang will give you some tips." She punched Fang in the shoulder and walked off.

Fang flew up with a grin on his face.

"Stop flirting with my sister, man." I said, and we both laughed.

"Then she needs to stop flirting back." He said smirking.

I rolled my eyes and grinned.

"Now we learned some tricks when we stayed with the hawks…"

* * *

Max POV

Alex getting wings was unexpected, but it made it easier on him. That backpack had almost pulled his poor arms off we'd done so much flying recently. But because he was almost a full blown bird-kid, or maybe was even more then us, he had finished healing up a lot faster.

And after he and Fang came back in, drenched in rain, and smelling like fresh Colorado mountain air, we gathered our stuff for takeoff.

I went through the check list again. Packs, check. I had packed most of them the other night. Flock, ready for takeoff, but not happy about it. Alex had his flying lessons, so he was okay, and Total had taken his fifty pit-stops he always does before a long flight. I swear, maybe he should just learn to take an in-flight break.

"Ready to go now?" I asked everybody. They nodded sadly. They had just gotten here, and we already had to leave.

"Okay. U and A." I said opening the front door to the rain. I leapt into the rain and muck.

Then I heard the rest of the flock follow, and Fang shut the door to the house. Here we were again, flying off from the house, but this time, not to save Angel, but to go under the radar from Scorpia.

And hopefully beat them, and anyone else who thinks they can take over the world, for good.

* * *

Alex: Told you it was Jump!

Felix: Meh.

Fang: I can't believe I flunked out again!

Alex: I can't believe I can do the drums on hard!

Me: I can't believe you guys are still alive!

Felix: I can't believe that you're still keeping them around…

R&R&Guitar Hero flunkies


	10. Break Up: Flock Style

Easter Bunnies from Hell!

Fang: Okay…What are you on?

Me: -laughs- Random pills.

Iggy: And they make you more or less random?

Me: More.

Alex: Goodie.

Felix: Hey, uh, Jay. The asylum called. They want you back.

Me: Oh, hah. You want to hear why I said that?

Felix: Please.

Me: Okay. -big breath- Me and my little brother were working on his home work, and he wanted me to draw a couple animals. Me, being me, got off topic and drew a cute little bunny, where my twisted brother gave it a gun, an ammo belt and grenades. We showed it to our mom, and told her it was the Easter Bunny, and she said, the 'Easter Bunny from Hell, maybe.'

Alex: Still is pretty random…

Felix: On with the story…

* * *

Max POV

We were off. And away from the E-shaped house. Again.

"Max, where are we going now? North? South? West? East?" Alex asked.

I sighed. He had gotten his wings and immaturity back when he got the venom out of his system.

"South, to Texas." I glanced over to Fang. "Fang has some buddies with a rocket launcher." He grinned, and I felt my heart speed up.

"And maybe the Fang-blog-worshipper might have a place for us to stay." I shot a look to Fang, who shrugged helpfully.

"Maybe, maybe not. He lives on a ranch, so we might be sleeping in a barn."

* * *

After about three hours of flying, we landed near a ranch in the middle of Texas.

"Chris should be here," Fang said and an athletic looking kid ran over.

"Hey! You guys need something?" He asked, and he stopped when he saw Alex.

"You new in the flock, man?" He asked.

Alex nodded. "About as new as you can get." He said smirking.

"Alright. Now, you're Max and Fang, right? The heads?" He asked and Fang nodded.

"You have a rocket launcher?" He nodded with a big proud grin on his face.

"You gotta love eBay." He remarked. "You need a place too?"

"You really don't have to…" I started, but he raised a hand to stop me.

"It's an honor. Really. You guys can hang in the barn. We cleaned out the loft a couple days ago." He started walking toward a real life cow barn. "And I'm Chris. Just come to the house if you need anything."

* * *

Fang POV

Thank internet for my blog.

That thing has been more than helpful when we're trying to save the world.

Breaking in to vacation homes just wasn't cutting it.

And this barn was actually relatively clean.

"Hey, Iggy, could you move your foot? It's kind of in my face." Gazzy said as quietly as he could. Iggy shifted a little and sighed.

"That was nice of him. Taking on seven bird-kids and a talking, flying dog." He rolled onto his side and kneed me in my side.

"Iggy, roll over." I growled. He sighed and rolled over again.

"Why do the girls get the bigger part of the loft?" Alex asked behind me.

"Because of three things," Iggy said "One: Fang left with Max in a private area could be bad," Where I kicked him in his stomach. "Two: Gazzy and Angel in the same area means that we'd have fighting, and three: Nudge will kick the crap out of anyone who sleeps within a five foot radius of her." He ticked off his fingers. "So that's why we're sleeping in the cleaned pig pen." He said.

"At least the hay is warm." Alex said.

"Sorry," Gazzy said.

"Great." Iggy moaned. "Gas masks on sale now." He said sarcastically. "Buy one get two free. Get 'em while you can still breathe." He made a gagging sound and stopped moving.

Alex kicked the back of his head and opened a window.

"This is going to be a _long_ night."

* * *

Alex POV

When I woke up, the sun was streaming warmly in through the open window, the birds were chirping outside, and Iggy was lying facedown on top of me.

"Iggy!" I half-yelled. He woke up and yawned, right in my face.

"What?" Fang asked waking up on the floor.

"Get off of me pervert!" I kicked Iggy.

"Good morning to you to sunshine." He grumbled sarcastically when he hit the floor.

Fang opened his eyes and saw Iggy on the ground, and me frantic on the top of the little haystack in the pen.

"Iggy. Alex doesn't like you that way," He said and opened the pig pen gate. Iggy opened his mouth to protest something like 'I'm not gay!', but Fang cut him off.

"We need to wake up the girls so we can get something to eat."

My stomach grumbled right on cue, and I laughed. "I second that feeling."

* * *

Max POV

_I was dreaming. I was sure of it. Too dang peaceful._

_There's no way that this can be happening. We're in a barn. _

_But my thoughts were trashed in the next minute. _

_Fang and I were sitting on a beach. The moon was above us, and it cast a blue light on everything._

_We were sitting in the surf, in the damp sand where the water would come up and wash over our feet before retreating back._

_I remembered what Fang had said what felt like several lifetimes ago, but what had really only been a couple months. That we should go grab a private island, have Angel make fish commit suicide for our dinner, and just forget about Itex, Jeb and all the other loonies who think they can take over/kill off the world. _

_Boy, if it would have been like this, I would should have taken him up on his offer._

_He had his arm around my waist, and a wing over my back._

_We were holding hands._

_Then Fang looked over to me, at the same time I looked over to him, straight on._

_We leaned in to kiss—_

And I woke up and Fang's face was right in front of mine. Just like in the dream, without the puckering.

"Gah!" I said and tried to flinch back, but that's' really hard when there's a mound of hay behind your head.

"Hello to you too." He said and grabbed my hand. "The others have already run away to get some breakfast." He said with a smile.

I felt my heart start fluttering like a little hummingbird trying to get free. Luckily, I have a rib cage, so that panicky bird wouldn't be free.

"What is breakfast?" I asked letting Fang help me up. He had hay in his wild black hair.

I picked it out, and he raised an eyebrow.

"You had hay in your hair." I said simply. He shook his head and walked over to the ladder leading down to the main floor of the barn.

"Hurry or there may not be anything left." He said and jumped down the hole, right past the ladder.

"Show off." I called after him. I heard him laugh and the barn door shut.

I had better get some food.

We were going to have a long day of strategizing on our hands.

* * *

Iggy POV

Max was now sitting in front of me, chowing down on something that smelled like really good maple syrup and sounded a little crunchy. Probably French toast.

"Man, Chris. Where'd you learn to cook like this?" Max asked cutting her breakfast.

"I picked it up from my mom." I could practically hear the blush and shrug he probably gave.

"And these waffles." I said taking another big bite of my waffles.

"It's really nothing." Chris said modestly.

"Thanks for the breakfast." Max said swallowing. "And for helping us out."

"My pleasure." He said and walked out of the room.

"Now, Max. We need to figure out how to beat Scorpia right?" I asked quietly.

I heard Fang pause in his cutting. "Yeah. We need a plan." He said and I knew he and Max were doing their silent 'I'm talking to you by looking at you' thing.

"We need someone we can trust on the inside. Then we need a penetration force. And a couple 'hostages' for the penetration team to 'go after'." I said.

"I volunteer for being a hostage." Alex said. And everything went quiet.

"No. You'll need to be on the penetration team. No one will know you're a bird-kid. Angel could be on the inside. She'll learn more." I heard Max get up then the clank of dishes against dishes.

"Nudge and Gazzy and Iggy can be hostages. Fang, Alex and I will be the penetration team. Everything will have to be perfect though." She said sitting back down.

"How will we time it?" Alex asked tentatively.

"After Nudge, Iggy, Angel and Gazzy get kidnapped, we'll follow after a day. Then Angel will team up with someone on the inside, maybe using mind-control." Max paused.

"Then you, Fang and Alex will come crashing in on the party." I finished up my waffles.

"Yeah. And Iggy, take twenty bombs each. Maybe some of those new prototypes. But we need an escape plan. And a distraction. Make sure they're hidden." Max said and I nodded.

"No problem. I'll grab Gazzy. We'll get started."

And for the first time in history, the flock actually had a plan.

* * *

Fang POV

CHECKLIST TO SAVE THE WORLD:  
-Plan: Check.  
-Bombs (For both distraction and escape): Check  
-Believable back story: In progress  
-Packs: Check  
-Clear roles in plan: Check

Now, all we needed to do was pretend the flock split up again so they wouldn't expect us coming. Cue fighting, center stage.

"I'm tired of running. I just want to stay and be able to relax!" Iggy yelled.

"Well, you can either come with us, or find a place for you, because Fang, Alex and I are going to save the world and your pathetic asses!" Max yelled louder.

"I really want to stay with you guys, but I just don't agree with running and pretending to save the world. You're not even a good leader!" Iggy shot back.

Max paused, her cheeks getting red, like she was actually mad.

"Then leave." She said deathly calm.

Dang she's a good actor.

"I will." Iggy said and Max turned to the three younger kids of the flock and Total.

"You going with him?" She asked.

"Not again." Total said.

They looked between Max, Alex and me and Iggy. Nudge shook her head. Gazzy, who happened to also be a good actor, looked close to tears. Angel was the first to cross the space, but walked over to Iggy.

So far, just like planned.

"Max, you've been making bad decisions." She looked up at Iggy. "Hopefully, Iggy will make better."

Max looked like she'd been dealt a physical blow when Angel said that.

We should all be actors.

"Max, I'm sorry." Nudge hugged Max. "But Iggy's right. We need to hunker down and relax." She walked over and we all looked expectantly at Gazzy and Total.

"I'm with Angel." Total said and trotted over to Iggy's feet.

"Me too." Gazzy said sadly.

Now the flock was in two again. Luckily we knew it wouldn't last.

Iggy led the bigger half to the barn door and jumped into the sky effortlessly, followed by Total, and Angel. Nudge and Gazzy looked back at us. I smiled reassuringly, and they grabbed each other's hands and took off together.

We were in two, and the plan was rolling.

Now, they just had to get kidnapped…

* * *

Fang: Nuzzy?

Me: I warned of slight Nuzzy in the summary, Fang.

Iggy: I'm flock number two's leader! Yay!

Alex: And I'm the total underdog in Max's flock.

Me: You're the newbie birdie.

Alex: XP

Me: :)

R&R?!?!?


	11. Plans, Zombies and Ghosts

No author's note.

Story time!

* * *

Max POV

We waited a week after our 'break up' to go check on the ITNAG (Iggy, Total, Nudge, Angel, Gazzy) flock.

And when we got to the predetermined site, there was no sign of the flock even getting there.

No fire pit, not even ashes, no foot prints, and they usually don't scrub those, and no sign of any struggle, even if they had gotten kidnapped.

So Fang, Alex and I were face with a big question. No, make that two.

Had they even gotten here, or had the kidnappers been really crazily thorough?

Were they kidnapped, or just taking a detour?

I should have given them a walkie-talkie or something. Maybe even bought Total one of those tracker collars. Even if he would have never forgiven me.

So I was down four flock members and Total, and the plan was basically scrapped.

"Wait." Fang said picking at a piece in the wall. He pulled out a napkin.

And it had writing on it.

"They were here." I said. "But where are they now?"

"Probably on their way to Colorado, tied up and everything." Alex said with a spark of hope.

Fang handed me the napkin. Nudge's hurried writing was scrawled across it.

_Max, Fang, Alex,_

_It's been two days. And now we hear robots. We're getting kidnapped. The plan should be working. Gazzy and Iggy have their bombs. _

_Please hurry. I don't want to be experimented on again…_

_-Nudge _

Two days after they took off they were tracked down.

We were late.

I ran and barely jumped into the air, and I was streaking toward Colorado.

I barely heard Fang and Alex behind me as I flew trying not to go into warp-drive.

My flock needed me. And they've been captive for five days.

Fang caught up to me and grabbed my ankle. Alex grabbed the other.

"Max, go ahead. Warp-drive." Fang said. "We'll hold on."

And then we were streaking off, almost breaking the speed of sound, to Colorado.

* * *

Nudge POV

We were in a lab-like room. Almost like the school, except that Fang and Max weren't here, and there was no way that Itex was this mean.

They had poked and prodded us, and threatened to beat us if we didn't tell them right then where Max and Fang were.

They didn't know or care about Alex.

"Tell me where they are, you stupid mutant!" An older man said picking up his gun.

"I DON'T KNOW!"I shrieked. He cocked the gun and pointed it toward my head.

"Yes you do!" He said with a twisted smile.

"NO I DON'T!!" I shrieked even louder. "BACK THE HECK OFF!"

He walked a couple steps closer and put the gun directly to my head.

"You wouldn't." I said, tears streaming down my face. He smiled and raised an eyebrow.

"Oh?" He said and pulled the trigger.

Everything went grey, black and white.

I was still alive. He'd fired a blank.

"You will tell me, or you will die." He said, showing me a bullet. "Or maybe your little boyfriend will tell me." He looked over toward the holding room.

"Last I saw them, they were at this ranch. In Texas." I said and he nodded. "Then we split up. Haven't seen them since." I said truthfully. Now, it was time to lie.

"It's been a month. They could be anywhere." Max had taught me early on to mix truth and lies, it makes it harder to decipher, and to always, always believe what you said.

And believe it or not, I believed that it was a month ago. I thought it loud and clear. So Angel could tell the others.

He leaned in closer. He had a scar running down his cheek. Exactly like Jeb. His hair was matted like Jeb's bed-head. In fact, he looked like Jeb, almost exactly.

The only thing that didn't match was his eyes. They were glazed over and grey, like he was dead.

And Jeb was dead…

Jeb was a zombie?

* * *

Fang POV

We have some severe luck. It's either really good, or really bad. Right now, we were having really crazy good luck.

I mean really good luck. We made off with ten pounds of McDonalds apple pies on our way to Colorado.

And we had eaten all of them. Max even snagged some extra money from a decrepit cash register.

Life was good, until we remembered that we had to rescue four bird-kids and Total.

We landed on the mountain over looking the Scorpia building, that oddly enough, Max recognized.

"There's an entrance over here." She said guiding us toward the helipad.

And sure enough, there it was. A hatch, just big enough for a bird-kid.

"This seems kind of set up." Alex remarked leaning over the hatch.

"It might be, but hopefully the plan is in motion." I said. "And in order for this plan to work, we've got to go down the hatch."

Max nodded her approval. I opened the hatch up and stuck my head in.

A lab-like building, but with grey walls and generic carpeting. A little less laby than the School.

"Coast clear." I said and did a flip down to the floor.

"Show off." Max said behind me as she landed with her wings out.

Alex almost fell when he jumped in, but Max caught him.

"Thanks sis." He said quietly.

Now we were on full flock protection mode. We walked down hallways silently, stuck ourselves on the ceiling and looked for security cameras, the whole nine yards.

I was plastered up against a darker grey wall, being invisible, and Max and Alex were checking the room across the hall.

Then a whitecoat came. He avoided all the little spotlight lights, and came to the door next to me. It was Jeb.

But Jeb was dead. But at least, Angel was tailing him like Max had seen at the School awhile ago.

Angel had infiltrated the School again.

I resisted the urge to smile, but sent her a strong reassuring thought.

She smiled and winked in my direction so fast that if I had blinked, I would have missed it.

Then I felt her in my head.

_Fang. Everyone's okay. Nudge has a bad bruise on her head from a blank, and Iggy and Gazzy are really weak, but we're okay. Tell Max. _

I sent her a mental thumbs up and slowly snuck around Jeb, who was trying to enter a password into the door lock, trying to get into the holding room.

We had been so close, it was funny. Searching the parallel room to the one we needed.

As I went and tried to open the door, my hand went through the handle. Twice.

Boy, what a time to develop a power. Ghosting. This should come in handy.

I ghosted through the door, which tickled a heck of a lot by the way, and found Max.

"Max." I said and she jumped. She looked around. Including right through me.

I groaned and made myself visible.

"Oh, hi Fang." She said and looked confused.

"How did you…" She trailed off, noticing that I had never opened the door.

"New power." I said simply. "Ghosting." She raised an eyebrow.

"Ninja Fang." She said. I smiled.

"Something like that." I dropped the smile. "I ran into Angel. And Jeb."

"Jeb's dead." She said.

"Obviously not." Alex remarked. He shuffled through some more papers.

"Ooh! These sound interesting." He handed them to Max.

"Birth records. Certificates. Biological parents. Egg donors. Everything." Max looked like she was about to burst with happiness.

"To find our parental info and defeat Scorpia in one day. Oh, boy." She said happily.

"Yeah. Now let's get Scorpia. Before we get caught." I said hurridly.

I grabbed both their hands and turned invisible.

Suddenly, we all disappeared.

Then, smiling, I walked through the door into the hall, and then into the room the Jeb-zombie had entered.

We were going to break out of here. After punching some skulls in of course.

* * *

Angel POV

I had gotten inside, and had gotten info.

Like that Scorpia thought Alex was dead.

Or that we were just bait for the 'big problems'. Fang and Max.

And that they had technology advanced enough to reanimate the dead, like Jeb.

And speaking of Jeb, he had locked us in a room with a whole bunch of robots, which he called 'Gadget-4's and told us that is we beat all of them, we'd get to sleep.

But sleep in a bad way. Like the sleep you won't ever wake up from kind.

Gazzy and Nudge were holding hands again, and glaring at the robots. Daring them to come near.

Iggy had two cherry bombs in each hand, and I was in the middle of their huddle.

They were protecting me, because I could destroy Scorpia.

Jeb came on over the loudspeaker.

"If you survive, you will be rewarded with food, a shower and sleep." There was a pause. "And if you don't, too bad." The speakers clicked off, and the Gadgets started for us.

"I hate Jeb. If it means anything." Nudge said to my left.

"I hate him too. He can burn in Hell." Iggy said.

"Can we focus on the Gadget-thingies?" Gazzy asked.

"No prob." Iggy said chucking a cherry bomb into the center of a huddle.

Nudge took down two with one kick, stepping out enough for me to wiggle out.

"Domino effect." Gazzy said throwing a bomb. "Angel, plow into that one, head on."

I rammed into a Gadget as hard as I could, straight into its chest. It tumbled backward into another Gadget, and then another, and soon, there were forty Gadgets lying on the ground, scrapped. By a seven year old.

I did the same to another group and soon, they were all sparking and sputtering on the ground.

Jeb came on over the speaker.

"You have survived, thus you will be rewarded. Exit." The speaker clicked off again.

"Thus?" Gazzy asked and Iggy and Gazzy cracked up. Nudge rolled her eyes and started walking toward the door that had opened automatically.

"Wait." I called after her. "Don't. It's a trap."

She looked toward the door and nodded.

"We need to get out of here somehow." She said.

Then a hand gripped my shoulder, and I screamed.

* * *

Max POV

"Angel, shut it. It's Fang." Fang whispered in her ear as she went into 'fight-to-death' mode.

She froze, concentrating. Alex's hand was sweaty on mine. I gently pulled my hand out of his grip, and suddenly Alex was visible again. Angel snapped her eyes open.

"Alex!" She squeaked. "Max and Fang are here?" She asked looking really confused. I removed my other hand from Fang's grip and I appeared.

Fang slowly turned himself visible again, and Angel hugged us all.

"I didn't feel you guys come in." She said. "It was like you weren't here. I guess Fang's invisibility covers cloaking." She said with a small smile.

"Not to mention ghosting." I mumbled under my breath. I would not want Fang as an enemy. He's like the ultimate stalker/spy/ninja/assassin or something. I am totally grateful that he and I are on the same side.

Fang smiled at my comment. "Yeah, happy-mushy family reunion. Now, let's get the hack out of here." He said and looked over toward Iggy.

Who was placing a large lump of wires and a watch on the wall. And it was clicking down time.

"Duck!" He yelled and we dove into the remains of the robot thingies.

Then all heck broke loose.

* * *

Iggy: Bomb, bomb, bomb, bombity, bomb, BOMB! -blows up a random car on the street-

Fang: Great. Random car explosions.

Alex: Well, I don't think anyone was in that one.

Me: That's a plus.

Alex: Oh, but here they come now…

Iggy: BOMB!

Me: I had to go put bombs in the story…

R&R to save the flock…And for me to update. Otherwise I won't. So there.


	12. Plans, Memories, and Unconsciousness

Happy chapter 12!

* * *

Fang POV

What Happened:

Iggy's bomb blew up, sending all of us, and the Gadget parts, flying through the air, landing very painfully on the wall.

More robots came in after the explosion.

Big hole in wall taunted us as the Gadgets carried us away.

Max was knocked out by a Gadget

I got mad because Max was knocked out, and got free.

Turned invisible and took all the flock out through the big hole that was shrinking somehow

Total bit Alex

I wasn't kidding about Total biting Alex. When I turned everyone invisible, Alex was supposed to grab Total, but Total bit him because he didn't know it was Alex.

But now, Iggy and I are sharing Max's load and trying to make a quick getaway.

So far, it wasn't working. Nudge and Alex were stuck at the front of the V, Gazzy and Angel kept shooting us worried looks, which didn't help much and then, the stupid Gadgets started shooting at us.

So I had to take Max's unconscious body and try to make evasive maneuvers.

That wasn't easy. But luckily, the Gadgets only had a couple shots each, and they were lousy aimers.

"Fang?" Max asked sometime later. Her eyes were fluttering. "Did we win?"

I snorted. "You could say that." I said and she hit me lightly.

"Funny. But seriously. Did we at least get them back?" She asked and Nudge came running over.

"Max! You're awake! What happened in there was so weird. You were knocked out, and Fang saved us all! It was sooo cool. You should have seen it." Nudge went on like this for another five minutes, when she paused to take a breath and Max interjected.

"That's really cool, and all Nudge, but could you please leave me and Fang alone. I'm sure Gazzy would just love to see you." She took the hint, and ran off.

"I think Nudge is ADHD." I said and Max laughed.

"Don't tell her that." She sat up and stretched her wings out.

"You saved everybody?" She asked.

"Turns out the Gadgets can only catch and hold what they can see. And grip." I added as an afterthought. "I could be, like an ultimate ninja or spy or something." I said and Max giggled.

"Just the thought of you as a ninja is funny." Max said in between giggles. "But you do kind of fit the bill."

I shrugged. "It was handy to get everyone out. It was like making a 'locomotive' to escape." That made her laugh again.

"I guess it was kind of funny, but then I and Ig trying to get into the air, and you being non-responsive made that kind of hard." I said and shrugged again.

"Well, at least we have insider info for Scorpia." Max said.

"And we can probably cripple Scorpia with it enough." I said and Angel walked in.

"Yeah, um. About that."

* * *

(Random A/N: Does this story tend to lean toward Fang's POV? Just a question.)

Max POV

Turns out, while you're knocked out, you get to think about a whole crapload of stuff.

But you don't get to choose what you think about.

So, on my mind as I was knocked out:

-Fang

-Fang

-Fang

-Iggy's bomb

-Fang

-Fang

-Fang

-Fang as a little kid (Aww…)

-How the heck to wake up

-Fang

You get the picture? I had Fang on the brain.

Then of course, as I was replaying that once scene of me and Fang kissing on the sub, I had to go and regain consciousness.

"Fang?" I asked weakly. "Did we win?"

He snorted. "You could say that." I tried to punch his arm, but I was still half asleep.

"Funny. But seriously. Did we at least get them back?"

Then I heard somebody running over.

"Max! You're awake! What happened in there was so weird. You were knocked out, and Fang saved us all! It was sooo cool. You should have seen it." Nudge went on like this for another five minutes, when she paused to take a breath and I interjected.

"That's really cool, and all Nudge, but could you please leave me and Fang alone? I'm sure Gazzy would just love to see you." She took the hint, and ran off.

"I think Nudge is ADHD." Fang said under his breath. I laughed.

"Don't tell her that." Isat up and stretched my wings out. They were stiff and sore.

"You saved everybody?" I asked.

"Turns out the Gadgets can only catch and hold what they can see. And grip." He added as an afterthought. "I could be, like an ultimate ninja or spy or something."I giggled.

"Just the thought of you as a ninja is funny." I said in-between giggles. "But you do kind of fit the bill."

He shrugged. "It was handy to get everyone out. It was like making a 'locomotive' to escape." That made me laugh again.

"I guess it was kind of funny, but then I and Ig trying to get into the air, and you being non-responsive made that kind of hard." He said and shrugged again.

"Well, at least we have insider info for Scorpia." I said lying back down.

"And we can probably cripple Scorpia with it enough." Fang said as Angel walked in.

"Yeah, um. About that." She said carefully.

"What, Hun?" I asked. "You got news?"

"Yeah. Uh, two things." She said twirling a curl.

"What's the first thing?" Fang asked. He was tensed. Like Angel was going to deliver some bad news.

"Well. Um. Scorpia wants to kill only you guys. They didn't care a bit about us. We were just bait for you. They thought Alex was dead too." Angel looked down.

"And it would be easier to just show you the next part." She looked each of us in the eye. "With my mind." She added.

I nodded. "Let 'er rip." I said. Angel half-smiled and looked deeper into my eyes.

Then I was seeing what Angel had seen.

_She was following Jeb around, and he led her into a conference room. No clues or anything. Nothing to be used against Scorpia._

_ "Take a seat." Jeb ordered. No Angel, no 'sweetie'. Just commands. Something was off with he was possessed. _

_ "You want to join us?" He asked. _

_ "Yes." She had answered. "Max and Fang aren't making good decisions anymore. I feel like Total, but with a leash. I just want to have power." _

_ "Good." Jeb snapped his fingers. Then the room had turned inside out. There were tools, plans, maps, schematics. And there was a glass case. _

_ And there was a silvery remote in it. _

_ "What's that?" Angel asked Jeb innocently. _

_ "That's the remote that grows robots inside of people. It is the future of the planet. No more human errors. No more mistakes and accidents. No more experiments." Jeb answered. "And we're going to eliminate the problem by using this remote. We're going to make Max and Fang obedient."_

_ Angel had nodded. "Perfect. Get rid of the problem." _

And before I knew it, I was sucked back into reality. And Fang was right behind me.

"Oh, God." Fang said.

"I was thinking more 'Oh, holy crapload.'" I nodded. "But, yeah. This is bad."

"Jeb wasn't Jeb." Angel said. "It was like he was a robot. Like they had killed him, then decided to use him to get to us."

"Yeah." I said. "We need to get them out of the picture."

"How?"

"There's always a plan." And, _BOOM_ I had one.

* * *

Iggy POV

"We're doing what?" I asked tentatively.

Max sighed. "We're going to just penetrate this time." Max repeated.

"Alex, me and Max on one." Fang said.

"Me and Ig for distraction and destruction on the other." Gazzy said.

"And Nudge, Angel and Total on guard." I repeated. That was the only clear part, and it wasn't even mine.

"Nudge will open the vents, and Angel and Total will scope out the layout. Then Me, Alex and Fang will ghost around in the rooms Angel deems important. Then when we gather enough info, we'll evacuate, and get Gazzy and Iggy to bomb the rooms we searched. Then ta-da! Scorpia's gone down the drain." Max said.

"Hopefully." Fang added.

"Yeah. Of course. Hopefully." I said.

"That's great and all, but what about the people? They can move headquarters." Alex pointed out.

"We'll knock some skulls together, put them in the important rooms, and they go out with the bang." I said.

I felt Fang and Max roll their eyes.

"Ig, I'm rolling my eyes." Max said.

"Then what?" Alex asked. He was obviously siding with my tie-'em-up-and-take-'em-out plan. "We can't just give them a buttwhooping or a stern scolding. It'll solve everyone's problems if they're just gone."

Max sighed. "Angel could mind-control them."

"For how long? Is her mind control permanent?" Alex countered. "Just get them out of the way, Max. Then they can't harm anyone ever again, and you save the rest of the world. About seven billion lives for a couple hundred, maybe."

Max groaned. "Fine. We'll do Iggy's plan. Knock 'em out, tie 'em up, and get them gone." Max sighed.

"Let's get ready. We're going tonight."

* * *

Me: Obviously, I won.

Alex: No. I won.

Me: I did.

Alex: You didn't.

Me: Did

Alex: Not

Me: Did!

Alex: Did NOT!

Fang: No, you both lost. I won.

Felix: No, I think all of you tied. For second.

Alex: But—

Me: I'm turning off the Wii now. –pushes off button-

Fang: I soo totally won that song though.

Me: No. You were lucky to make it through half of the song. You almost flunked out like five times.

Fang: XP

Me: And Alex only got an eighty on bass.

Alex: It was an eighty four!

Me: -ignores Alex- And Felix got a ninety two.

Felix: -looks smug-

Me: And I got a ninety seven. So I won.

Everybody else: Did NOT!

Me: -facepalm- They never listen.

R&R for my sanity? Please? Oh, there it went…Oh well.


	13. Missing: Fang

And…

* * *

Max POV

It had taken only fifteen minutes to explain the plan this time.

A half an hour less than last time. A new record.

"Max? When are we taking off?" Angel asked me from the ground.

I was perched on the roof, trying to figure out how to get to the Scorpia building.

"In a few minutes Angel. I just got to figure out how much we'll be flying."

"Okay." She said and skipped off.

Angel was too cheerful. But, it was almost humorous watching her skip five feet into the air at a time.

"Max." A voice said behind me and I almost jumped.

"What Alex?" I turned around to face the newest member of the flock. My brother.

"Well, I was thinking…" He looked over toward the farmhouse. "You guys have powers, right?"

Not this again… "Yeah…" I said. I had a bad feeling about what he was going to say.

"I think I have one." He frowned. "But I'm not sure what to call it." He looked at his feet.

"What can you do?" I asked. This could either be really good, or really troublesome. I hope it's the really good option.

"I can, uh, teleport, I guess." He smiled sheepishly. "But I need to test some things out."

"Like?" I prodded. At least it was teleporting and not being able to kill someone with a glance.

"If I can take other people with me." He lost his smile. "It might be really handy for sneaking around."

"Yeah. You and Fang. The Ultra Ninja Team. UNT." I said with a grin. I liked teasing Alex. He took it well. Like it was normal for him to banter with odd people.

Then again, given his job, he might have had experience doing just that…

He looked down again. "You want to try it out?" He asked.

"Sure." I walked over and grabbed his hand. He smiled and suddenly, we were in the middle of the field.

"I think it worked, Alex." I said trying to brush my pants off.

"Well this will come in handy…" He said with a huge grin.

"Stop looking so smug." I said looking over to him. "We still have to get there."

"But they'll never see us coming…"

* * *

Alex POV

My new power came in handy.

You know how Max couldn't decide how we should sneak in? We're teleporting.

Thanks to me.

Max held a finger to her lips and shushed us.

We were still on the farm, but we were getting ready to go invisible and teleport to Scorpia HQ.

We were all holding hands in the barn, waiting to leave. Fang looked at Max, and she nodded.

We were invisible.

I felt Max's combat boot against my leg. My cue. I teleported us to the white building.

We were in the middle of the room that Fang and Max and I had rummaged through last time. Where we found the flock's parents.

Fang released the invisibility, and we all got into gear.

Nudge and Angel were with Total at the door. Iggy and Gazzy were already getting to work on their 'fireless flares' for distractions. And Fang and Max were already talking to Angel on which rooms we should check.

Within four minutes, the flock was in total overdrive. Team One, Max, Fang and me, had already searched two rooms. Team Two, Iggy and Gazzy, had made about fifty flares, stun grenades and fire-starters. And Team Three, Nudge, Angel and Total, had confused and redirected seven whitecoats.

So far, so good, as Jack would say.

Right now, we were in a random room. Fang and Max were ransacking the vertical files, while I was searching the computer someone had conveniently left on.

Then I found something probably really classified.

"Max. Come here. I think I hit the jackpot."

There was a full layout of Scorpia's plans, contacts, and those they took out and those they were allied with.

"Holy crap." Max said as she saw it. "Wait. What's that?"

She pointed to a place on the screen where there was Jeb's name.

"Looks like he was a go-between." I said and clicked the file.

The file popped up with a picture of Jeb.

It read:

_Name: Jeb Batchelder_

_ DOB: January 14, 1968_

_ Status: Terminated-July 13, 2009_

_ Info:_

_ Jeb Batchelder had been associated with Itex and Itex operations for twenty years, helping with the downfall of Itex from the inside. He engineered School No. 143s most successful and most dangerous experiments; Fang (FNBN574392) and Maximum Ride (MXRD574390). Ten years prior to their creation, he took six rogue genetic experiments from School No.143 and went undercover in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. Two years prior to going incognito, he disappeared off all electronics, only to be found again two years later back at the School. He then joined the main Itex manufacturing hub and remained until Maximum escaped from Solitary Confinement._

_ He had been arrested twice before and released clean by Flagstaff Police Department for Infant Stem Cell Research. He was also committed to a mental facility north of Phoenix shortly after joining Scorpia, but was released after examination of brain activity._

_ Batchelder has no known wife or human children past Maximum and Ari (ARBT690283). Also has no viable interaction with Maximum._

_ Eliminated by Hunter II for Level Seven Clearance Breach. _

_ Note: At time of elimination, Batchelder was working on project No. 745: Reanimation of dead matter. _

"Whoa." Fang said behind Max's shoulder. "Jeb was a nut, but not nutty enough for the nuthouse." He paused. "Did I just say 'nut' three times in a sentence?"

Max sighed. "Yes. Now, Alex, try and print that off."

I went to click the print button, but I noticed something. There was a flash drive plugged in.

"Let's just use the flash drive." I said and started plugging the files away into the drive.

"Perfect." Max agreed. She and Fang went back to rummaging. You know, just to see if they had the paper to back it up.

"Done." I said disconnecting the drive from the PC. "We need to get out."

"Hold on," Max said. "I think I found something…" She reached her hand deeper into a box in the corner.

"Got it." She pulled out a blinking sphere. It looked oddly familiar…

"Put that down." I said remembering. "That's a bug. It heard us."

"Well, (Enter a really bad work here)." Max said throwing the bug down. She leapt into the air and fell down onto it with all her weight. I heard a little crack.

Max broke the bug, but not soon enough. "We need to leave now."

Fang nodded and held his hand out. Max took his and then took my hand in her other. I teleported us out just as the sirens started.

* * *

Gazzy POV

We had finished the fiftieth fire-starter when the sirens started wailing.

"Time to move!" Total said lunging for the hatch above.

"Iggy! Gazzy! We got to get those distractions going!" Nudge said, taking charge momentarily. "Angel, tell 'em where to go."

Iggy and Angel talked mentally for a couple moments, and I was stuck gathering all the explosives.

The siren was still going off. Angel whipped her head toward the door.

"Get down," She said quietly, echoing it with the same thought in our heads.

She picked out four of the cherry bombs.

"Pull the red wires, then throw. It'll be active." She said as she started pulling wires. She whipped them at the door at the last possible second.

There was a big explosion, and there were several screams from outside.

She started the distraction.

"Don't ever do that again, Angel." I heard Max's voice enter the room.

"'Kay, Max." Angel said as Max, Alex and Fang appeared.

"Okay. Now, Iggy. Gazzy. Move." She said sternly.

Iggy and I booked it outta there. Iggy was carrying most of the cherry bombs in his pockets along with most of the fire-starters.

So we were running down the halls, doing maybe sixty miles an hour, and whipping random explosives everywhere.

Team One had collected most of the info anyway.

* * *

Fang POV

Back at Chaos HQ, Max was barking instructions, orders and ranting to Angel, for Iggy, and Nudge, for hacking the computers, me, to stand guard outside, and Total, for upchucking all over the floor.

Right now, she was talking to Angel, sending destinations to Iggy.

Alex was trying to be anywhere but here in the corner. I guess he used all of his teleporting up for today. Tomorrow, maybe he could teleport us to the safety of Hawaii…

"Fang! Stop zoning out! You're on guard." Max snapped.

"Sorry." I said and went invisible and walked through the wall.

I needed to think. Without Angel overhearing.

Max needed to relax after this mission. Maybe we could hunker down on one of those new islands off of Africa. It would be pretty peaceful.

Name it, live on it and off of it. Just the eight of us.

"Did we check this room?" I heard a voice ask. There was a whitecoat at the door. And he had a friend.

So I did what any sensible mutant would do. I knocked them out before they even knew what hit them.

I even tied them up and locked them in one of the rooms that Iggy was going to blow to pieces.

But I probably should have gotten out of there faster.

Because the last thing I remember was a big BOOM.

* * *

Max POV

"We need to move it guys!" I called over the rising smoke and debris.

"Grab on." Alex said next to me.

I whipped my hand over and grabbed his shoulder. Angel and Nudge were wrapped around his legs and Total was trying to stay in Angel's lap.

Alex teleported outside.

And I was really thankful for the fresh air. Gazzy had kind of stunk up the room before I set him loose to blow the building to smithereens.

And in about ten minutes, we were met with Gazzy and Iggy.

"Mission accomplished." Iggy saluted, then fell on the ground.

"Good job crew." I counted heads.

Me, Alex, Iggy, Nudge, Angel, Gazzy, Total. No Fang.

Oh, man.

"We're missing Fang."

* * *

Ooh! Fang is the Damsel in Distress!

Iggy: Yeah, he's really got to stay away from my bombs.

Alex: You need to stop making them.

Iggy: Oh, do not.

Felix: Here they go again…

Alex and Iggy: What?

Felix: Nothing.

Fang: -stunned- I got killed?

Me: -looks away innocently- I never wrote that. You might be dead, or unconscious…

Fang: I got killed. By Iggy…

Iggy: She wrote it.

Me: I didn't kill Fang!

R&R if you don't hate me yet. Pwease? –bats eyelashes- I'll give you a cookie!


	14. Deja vu?

New note: All author's notes will now be at the bottom…Except this one. So from now on.

* * *

Max POV

We ran back toward the building. It was becoming unstable.

"Alex. Just you and me." I grabbed his hand and he nodded.

"Be careful. We pretty much ruined most of the building." Iggy said behind me.

I nodded. Alex teleported us inside.

It was really dang dusty and smoky.

"Fang!" I yelled. My voice echoed down the hallway with the crackle of the fires.

"Fang!" Alex yelled.

"We have to split up." I said. "We'll cover more ground."

"No. We need an easy getaway. If you find him, how will you get out?"

Sadly, he had a point. I nodded and choked on the smoke. "Let's start looking."

* * *

We looked through all the rooms we had covered, including the mission HQ, but there was no Fang.

Then, it hit me. "Fang was keeping guard in the hallway. Maybe he dealt with some whitecoats."

"Where would he have put them?" Alex asked, grabbing my hand.

"Close, but far enough away from HQ."

"On Iggy and Gazzy's trail of destruction." Alex confirmed.

Alex teleported us over to a room that was lucky enough to only receive a stun grenade.

And there was Fang.

He was lying on the ground, coughing.

"Fang!" I ran over and hugged him.

"Max?" He asked hoarsely. "What are you doing here?"

"We have to get out. The place is on fire." I said and dragged Fang to his feet.

I grabbed Alex's hand, and we were out.

Did I mention that I just love fresh air?

* * *

Fang POV

"And I came to right as you guys came in." I finished.

"You should have gotten out of there faster." Iggy mumbled next to me.

I rolled my eyes and punched his arm. He fell over laughing.

"You boys just can not be serious for once in your lives, can you?" Max sighed.

"Nope!" Iggy and I answered together.

"Great." Alex groaned.

"At least Fang's okay." Nudge said. "And not hurt, burned, blinded, dead, maimed—" Nudge babbled until Gazzy clamped a hand over her mouth.

"Yeah, one big happy family." I said.

"Sure. Happy." Max said as Nudge and Gazzy got into an argument.

"Young love." Angel said with a smirk.

Max rolled her eyes.

"What do you know about young love?" I asked her. Angel was getting weird—and I mean weirder than usual.

She shrugged. "I was the one who figured out they liked each other in the first place."

* * *

Alex POV

Now that we had blown up the Scorpia HQ, and rescued Fang, you'd think everything would go back to normal right?

Well, depending on your normal, it might have, but we were running around, changing cover and home base constantly. So it was 'flock normal'.

"Why do we have to run around like this so much? I mean, we got rid of Scorpia right? Then we should be able to go back home. To the E-shaped house." Nudge said.

"We can't be sure Nudge. We destroyed the building, but we might not have gotten rid of Scorpia." I said. "Scorpia had six or seven heads left in charge, and they might have let Scorpia go, or they might have just moved HQs again."

"So we might have to kill them off?" Fang asked. "Go Scorpia hunting?"

"What it sounds like—but I'd rather we just find a place and hunker down." Max complained. "Like the E-shaped house?" She suggested.

"Sure." Fang agreed. "The kids'll like it."

"But we—"

"We need to figure out where they are before we go hunting, right?" Fang reasoned. "Or we might be 'hunting' ourselves right into a trap."

I nodded. "Touché. Let's get to the house."

* * *

Max POV

Moments later, we were on our way, Nudge, Gazzy and Angel bursting with happiness at returning to the house.

Upon landing, though, the world completely collapsed around us—the house was completely burned down.

There was only basement left. Everything—Iggy's bomb supplies, my bed, Angel's stuffed animals, Nudge's magazines that we had smuggled for her, Fang's CDs, Gazzy's video games, Alex's backpack—Nothing was left but ashes.

"No." I whispered. The house was gone. "(Insert a swear word of your choice here), no!" I said. Angel grabbed my hand.

"We have to move again?" She asked quietly. Iggy was walking toward the steps like he'd done for four years. He stepped up, reached for where the door handle used to be, and fell off the steps onto the ash-covered ground. There was a plume of ashes when he fell.

"What the heck?!" Iggy said and reached around. He felt the ashes and froze.

"Time to leave." I said pointedly and turned to take off.

"Where will we go? The cave at Lake Mead?" Fang asked sarcastically. "A repeat of our lives?"

"Actually, Lake Mead doesn't sound too bad." I said back making him pause. "About five hours straight." I looked over to Alex. "Unless…" He caught on.

"We teleport." He finished, taking my hand.

I grabbed Fang's hand and we all got connected up.

Then, we were on the banks of Lake Mead.

"If only we had you on our rescue adventure." Nudge commented. "It would have been soo much faster. We wouldn't have been caught either…" She trailed off.

Alex smiled. "But it wouldn't have been as much fun." He said and we all laughed. Fun—yeah, right.

"To the cave." I declared, streaking off to the ledge. "Then to Death Valley." I said sarcastically.

We really needed a plan—wait, I have one. I just need to talk to the Voice…

* * *

Sorry I'm slow on updating. If you haven't noticed, I did update, and someone did review. I think it was on one of my other stories though…Oh, well. And sorry this chapter is so short. Next one will be longer.

Alex: -clicks post- You have to babble.

Fang: -mumbles- Nudge.

Me: :P


	15. Isolationism

Max POV

Bored. Bored. Bored. Bordity. Bored.

Could not do _anything_ be more boring?

Not to mention annoying…

Iggy dealt the deck for the hundredth time. I hadn't had anything against Go Fish until now, but I didn't know that Iggy could actually cheat. He has like super-blind-boy vision…If that made _any_ sense.

"I hate Go Fish." I groaned, throwing my hand down. Iggy reached for it and made a match.

"Don't diss the game, Max. It hasn't done anything to you." He chided.

I punched his shoulder. "Yes, it did! It has totally melted my brain. I'm surprised I can still talk." I said leaving.

"I'm bored too." Angel said handing her cards to Iggy. He smiled and made a couple more matches. "I want to _fly_, or maybe _sleep_, or even better, _kick some Scorpia butt!_" She said smirking.

I was worried about her…She seemed to be getting more in touch with her devilish side nowadays. Fang was getting quieter—if that was even possible. Alex was getting more obnoxious, especially with randomly teleporting behind you, breathing down your neck then teleporting away before you catch him. He's also getting harder to race. He _loves to cheat._ I mean, if you're going to cheat, at least be subtle.

Gazzy has been practicing his 'fart-attacks' as he calls them. I call them cruel and unusual punishment. I think that Iggy is getting his sight back—or at least, a sight replacement. Like reading with his fingers, and seeing vague colors. He can identify a three of hearts in the deck at least.

And, as I said, Fang has become quieter. He barely even acknowledges me. Even when I hug him! He's starting to worry me…

When we, the rest of the flock and Total, were playing cards, charades, or trying to help Iggy cook, he's almost always sitting on the ledge outside the cave like a handsome gargoyle.

Right now, he was flying with the hawks, and I was going to find out what was going on. Whether he liked it or not.

* * *

Fang POV

Being back at the cave was homey. It was actually more our home now than the E-shaped house had been a week ago. Had it really been a week? It felt like a lifetime. Like yesterday we had been here for our ninth life.

But, of course, something had to go wrong.

I had been getting ready to jump in Lake Mead for a bath the other night, and saw something on the back of my neck. A string of numbers.

06-14-10.

Two months from now, I was going to die. It was my expiration date.

We all had expiration dates, like we were a carton of milk or something, but none of ours had appeared until then. Heck, I didn't even realize it until three days ago.

But, I've been trying to isolate myself, to not get the flock suspicious. But, I don't think it worked.

Max streaked up beside me in my circle. A few of the hawks veered away. They still didn't know how to respond to Max's warp-drive.

"Hey." I said and she blushed.

"What's with you?" She asked strongly. "I mean, you've been so—out of it lately…" She trailed off and I looked at the ground.

"I have something to show you." I said quietly, and I was pretty sure it would have been lost in the wind if it hadn't been for our raptor hearing.

"Show away." She said, and I dived down to land. I couldn't show her in the air. Would be awkward.

She landed softly next to me. "Well?"

"It's—on my neck." I said being blunt.

She looked confused at first, then sad, then downright pissed. "You have an expiration date and you didn't tell me?" She shook her head and walked behind me to get a look.

"I noticed a couple of nights ago, but I didn't want to worry you…"

"You were worrying us by trying to isolate yourself!" She yelled.

I didn't say anything. It was best not to now. Especially when Max was this ticked.

She took a deep breath before checking my neck.

"Well, crap." She said. _That's a HUGE understatement,_ I thought snidely. Biggest one this year next to Gazzy's 'Oops' when he blew out our toilet.

"What're we going to do?" She asked withdrawn. Crap, she's gone into 'Oh, man, this is hopeless' mode. The hardest setting to get her out of.

"We'll think of something." I tried reassuringly. How ironic. I was the one with the numbers on my neck and I was calming her down.

"I hope so—wait! I got it!" She looked up, hope very obvious in her eyes.

I got it too. "Scorpia." We said together.

* * *

Alex POV

"I've never not trusted a Max-mission before, but this one is just us asking to be killed." I said slowly. "This is insane."

"Insane? This is Sparta!" Iggy quoted from the corner.

Max rolled her eyes. "It'll work. We just got to get a couple of the whitecoats and get Angel to creep around in their heads." Angel raised an eyebrow.

"What if I think this plan is suicide, too?" She asked directing a look to me.

She was starting to creep me out more. She had been weird at first, when I first got the mission to watch them, but now, it seems like she's gotten worse.

She glared at me. Right, mind reader. Don't diss 'em when they're in the room.

She smiled a little. Good. I'm clear.

Max stood like Angel hadn't just said that. "You _will do it._ Or I will _personally_ kick your genetically engineered butt all the way to Antarctica." Max said with ice in her voice, probably colder than Angel's threatened destination.

Angel shrugged like she just agreed to walk Total.

"Why do we all have to go?" Total asked. "I want to stay here."

"Fine with me." Max said. "Any questions?"

No one moved, no one breathed.

"Great. We leave ASAP."

* * *

Filler chapter.

Max: And you kidnapped me.

Fang: Welcome to Club Jay's hostages.

Felix: We have t-shirts.

Alex: And instruments.

Max: You belong in the loony bin.

Me: -shrug- I'm only weird in FanFiction…

Max: And that's where we are. -sigh-

R&R? Or at least recommend? Something…? Anything…? Hello…?


	16. Definite Deja Vu 'sigh'

Fang POV

We were seriously doubting this plan.

Scorpia had probably already moved. We needed to get on the internet…

That was a good idea.

I whipped my computer out of my backpack and got to work.

Max came by on her 'get everyone moving' rounds and saw me on the computer.

"Fang? What are you doing?"

"Finding Scorpia. They've probably already moved." I said simply, typing Scorpia into Google.

Google is awesome. Totally a life-saver.

But, there was a slight complication. According to Google, Scorpia didn't exist.

"Well." I said with a frown. "So much for my plan…"

"Nudge." Max said. I nodded.

"Nudge!" I yelled. She fluttered over from a ledge outside.

"Yeah Fang? Max?" She asked.

"We need you to hack a government system." I said. Nudge smirked.

"Which one?"

* * *

Max POV

Nudge never ceases to amaze me with her hacking skills.

Within an hour, she was into the MI6 files, searching for a link to Scorpia's current location, or Itex.

And luckily enough, it was there. Scorpia had moved to California.

Into the old Itex HQ.

Like they were luring us there.

Like a big ole' trap.

And I knew better than to take their bait.

"Fang. Itex HQ," I said. "It's a trap."

He didn't turn his gaze from the computer's screen. "Maybe it is, maybe it's not. But on the off chance, that it isn't, I want to go check it out."

"Because you're dying in two months?" I asked, forgetting that Nudge was there.

"He's dying in two months?! He has his expiration date?" She shrieked. "Crap!"

I've never ever seen her freak like this. Well, maybe when Gazzy and Iggy got a prototype glue-bomb stuck in her hair.

"It's alright, Nudge. We'll save him. We have to." I mentally kicked myself. Should have kept my big mouth shut.

"That's why we're trying to find Scorpia?"

"And Itex. They might be able to cancel out his expiration date."

Fang let out a breath he probably didn't know he'd been holding. "Yeah. And if they won't, I'll make Angel make them."

Nudge nodded. "Maybe they can get rid of ours too."

I patted her on her head. "Absolutely. I don't want to go through this twice."

* * *

Alex POV

We were on our way to the School. Hopefully to get poetic justice on Itex.

Erase their mistakes by going back and fixing it where it was screwed up.

Would be even better if we could go back into the past and make sure they never would do it.

But, we can only do so much.

At least I can keep up with the rest of them when they're going as fast as we were.

We had decided to fly. Teleporting would have given us the element of surprise, but Max said she had a plan if we did it this way.

She didn't elaborate.

All I know is that we can't just go in and blow it up, like they deserved. We had to retrieve information.

We stopped to take a break on our way, in a little town. And we made a stop at the local McDonalds Dumpster. And the food we managed to smuggle was still warm. A bonus for us!

Then, we stopped at a bank. Iggy happened to remember someone's password, and they still had their card. Max said 'that jerk needs another dose of his karma'. I think they hacked him before…

So now, our stomachs were full, we had two hundred bucks, which we hadn't exactly pick-pocketed, and we were on our way to get a ride.

They had obviously done this before. In front of a small plaza, there was a convertible, with the cap down. Max and I took a peak under the hood.

A V-8 engine, a clean and shiny air-filter, and full liquids in everything.

"Whoever owns this had it serviced a little bit ago." I remarked and shut the hood.

"I have the keys." Iggy called from the driver's seat.

"Oh, you are _not_ driving." Fang said, trying to grab the keys.

"Why not?" Iggy called back.

"Uh, Iggy, I hate to break it to you, you're blind." Max said.

"I hadn't noticed." He said frowning. "But why can't I?"

"You have to see where you're going." I said. "And besides, don't you have to be fifteen or something?"

Max turned to me. "I'm driving, bud. You get to navigate."

"But—"

"No." She said and ripped the keys from Iggy's hand.

"Next time?"

"Once you get your sight back." Fang said.

Iggy hit him.

We all piled into the convertible. Iggy and Fang had the youngest ones on their laps. Gazzy was on his. Nudge was holding Gazzy's hand, from her crowded middle seat.

"They need to invent a racing van." Max muttered. She started the car up and raced off toward Death Valley.

* * *

Fang POV

I totally hated it when we couldn't fly. But, as Max continuously pointed out, it was less conspicuous to drive, no matter how cramped we were.

And soon, we were in a cheap motel with three beds.

We drew straws for the beds, and the shower order. Max, Iggy, Alex, Gazzy, Nudge and Angel ended up with the beds. I was going to sleep in the recliner. Gazzy was going to be first in the bathroom, but we made him go last. I'd rather not have to hold my breath the entire time it took to take a shower.

Alex was currently in there. And taking _forever!_

"Done!" He said stepping out with a puff of steam.

I rolled my eyes. His wings and hair was still dripping wet.

"Get three towels." Max ordered. "Now."

He grabbed the three and handed them to her. She promptly flopped them on his head and on each of his wings. He looked really funny, like a towel angel or something.

Angel raised an eyebrow at my revelation, obviously trying not to laugh.

"He does." I muttered. She couldn't stand it. She burst out laughing.

Alex glared at Max. "Thanks, sis." He said icily.

"No problem. Fang, your turn."

* * *

Max POV

After we were all clean, my faux tan gone, we plopped down in our beds for a good night's rest before we kicked Scorpia's theoretical butt.

Too bad I couldn't sleep. Last time we were in this area, I had been kidnapped and replaced. I just couldn't live that down.

Fang had noticed my continuous stirring. "Max, you want me to take watch?"

"That would be great." I agreed. I heard him kick the footrest down on the recliner.

"Get some sleep." He said sitting near the door. I nodded into my pillow and shut my eyes.

_And what do you know, I was dreaming. _

_ I looked down at myself. I was me. Finally. _

_ I checked out everything else. Exactly like the hotel room. Fang was even by the door._

_ Huh?_

Max._ The Voice, just the thing I wanted to talk to._

What's going on? _I asked, _I was asleep.

Still are. Look down further. _I did. There was another me on the bed. _

_ What the…_

You're having an out-of-body experience.

How…?

Happens every now and again. To everybody. But this one's special.

How so, Voice?

Go to Itex.

How…? _I hate this fortune cookie crud. Especially in situations like this. _

Fly. Walk. Run. Float. Teleport. Anyway you want. Just go.

That helps. _I thought as snidely as I could. I tried floating. No movement. I tried swimming, also a no-go. Walking? Couldn't touch the floor. That eliminated running too. Teleporting was Alex's thing. I couldn't do it. _

_ That left flying. _

_ I flapped my fourteen foot wings, and moved a foot forward. _

Good, Max. Keep going.

Shut up. I got this. _I did. I got there in a half hour. Slower than regular flying, but a heck of a lot faster than running. _

_ I floated in front of the building._

Now, what, Voice?

Go in.

Alright. _I flew closer. Then through the wall. _

Good. Good. Now, go to the computer server.

Am I going to somehow pull off all of it's data?

_I swear, if the Voice could nod, it would have. _Yes, Max. Take the CD off the desk there, and follow my instructions.

Do I have a choice?

_There was a slight hesitation. _No.

Great. _Just great. _

_ I went to pick up the disc. My hand went right through it. _

You have to concentrate, Max.

_I tried again. My hand was solid, and I picked it up. I quickly slid it into the server._

Good. Now go over to the computer…

* * *

Fang POV

I hated being this close to the old Itex HQ. Last time we were here, Max got replaced by a clone.

So Max and I really didn't want to be here.

But, of course, Max has to go and have that insomnia again.

And I was put on guard.

Max was happily snoozing away at this point, and I had to concentrate on keeping my eyes open.

I sighed. I tapped Iggy's hand three times. He woke up and shuffled over to the door for watch.

"Thanks, Iggy." I said and plopped into Max's bed. I was so darn tired…

"No problem, Fang." He said. "night."

I mumbled something in response and shut my eyes. They ached; it felt so good to close them.

* * *

Max POV

Good. Now I'm done, right?

Yes, except that you have to go back to bed.

Well, yeah. _I thought. Duh._

_ No response. The Voice had left already. Whatever. _

_ Time to go back to bed! _

_ I flew through the wall like a ghost. Or Fang. Then I fell back into my body. _

And, oddly enough, it was really hot under my blanket.

I felt a breath on the back of my neck.

I looked over my shoulder, and saw Fang, who was supposed to be keeping watch at the door.

I glanced at my clock, then back at Fang. My little trip had taken three hours.

And Iggy was on watch…

I'll let him off the hook just this once.

* * *

Alex POV

The next morning, Iggy was asleep at the door, Fang looked like he had been dumped out of Max's bed, and Max was in the recliner. Nudge had given Angel a good bruise on her leg, and Gazzy had been sleeping on a bomb.

Another restless night for the flock. Jeez.

So, after a breakfast of pilfered McDonalds food—have you noticed how much we like McDonalds?—we got back on the road.

And it was a little more twitchy than usual.

Fang happened to be _very talkative._

And considering Fang is usually _silent, _that set off all of our alarms.

Max interrupted his rambling about the mission when we pulled into a nearby gas station. "Hey, Fang? I have a question for you."

He blinked. "Okay, shoot."

"What was our code word to say that we weren't clones?"

"Uh, I don't think you told me. Gazzy, Iggy and I were on the West Coast."

"I told you when we got back."

"No you didn't."

Max looked like maybe he was right. "Maybe I didn't…"

Fang relaxed.

"But, can I see your neck? I want to see how your mosquito bite is doing."

"Sure." He pulled his collar down so it showed most of his neck.

There was no expiration date. This was Fang II.

I almost groaned. This just had to get more complicated.

"No, it's gone. You're clean." Max said. Good thing what she said could have a double meaning.

I filled up the tank quickly and Max drove us out.

This was going to be interesting, to say the least.

* * *

Fang: Dang, now I'm a hostage? With an expiration date?

Me: Revenge from an unhappy reader.

Fang: What did I do?

Me: Left Max. Duh.

Alex: End of FANG.

Fang: I didn't do that!

Iggy: Did too.

Fang: No one asked you!

Iggy: -sticks tongue out-

Me and Alex: -sigh-

Me: -whacks both of them with a frying pan-

Fang and Iggy: -are knocked out-

Alex: Peace and quiet. Finally.

Me: Yep.

R&R to support the Frying Pan Donation Fund


	17. A Bobcat and a Failed Eraser

Fang POV

I was in a lab. In a cage. And I was the only one here. From the flock anyway. There was an interesting wolf-boy in the cage next to mine. Like a failed Eraser or something.

He was totally friendly, not like the other bloodthirsty brutes that used to hunt us.

He could even speak English!

"I'm Cole." He said roughly. He held his hand out between the bars of his cage.

I accepted his hand. "Fang."

"What are you in here for, Fang?" He asked in his gruff voice.

"Avian-American." I answered flaring my wings a little. He nodded.

"I'm Eraser 6.7. They think I'm not a good hunter though. I won't kill anything."

"Then we're on the same side."

He nodded. "Someone's coming." He turned toward the door. I saw a mane of dark fur on his neck. He'd never appear fully human, unless he grew his hair long in the back.

A whitecoat opened the door and walked over to us.

"Ah, now you have some exciting prey. Maybe now you'll kill." The whitecoat reached into Cole's cage and roughly snapped a collar onto his neck. He snapped a leash onto that. Like Cole was a dog. He came over to my cage next.

He had a Taser. He opened our cage doors. He held the Taser against my back and Cole's leash as he led us into a low-ceilinged room.

Cole and I shared a pained expression the whitecoat roughly shoved us into the lab-like room.

The whitecoat shoved me with the Taser, and I ran into the middle of the room. The ceiling only hung eight feet off the floor, definitely not enough room for me to takeoff.

He undid Cole's collar and Cole morphed into a dark-colored wolf.

We had to do something…but what?

* * *

Max POV

Fang II was babbling. Still. I had already slapped him, what else could I do?

"You know, the _real Fang_ doesn't talk this much." Gazzy said while on Fang II's lap.

Fang II stopped babbling.

"Finally!" Iggy said.

I looked in the rear-view mirror. Gazzy was grinning evilly.

"You guys need a pit stop?" I asked seeing a sign for one in the next mile.

"No." Angel answered for everybody, "But plug your noses."

_Bbrrriiiittttttt_

"Gazzy!" Iggy, Alex, Angel, Nudge and I yelled.

Fang II was too busy holding his breath.

"Oops." Gazzy said.

"Yeah, _oops!" _I said back. God, I was going seventy down the highway, and I still could smell Gazzy's "accident"

"Can't breathe!" Fang II gasped. He stuck his head out the side of the car. "That's better."

"Sorry." Gazzy said sheepishly. He slapped Iggy a high five.

"How long until we get to the HQ?" Fang II asked breathlessly.

"We're here." I said noticing the exit sign for Itex.

"Yay." Fang II said earning raised eyebrows all over.

"What?"

* * *

Fang II POV

This 'mission' thing was not as easy as my training made it seem. I think I've been busted already.

_Ya think? _I heard a little voice in my head say.

"Huh?" I looked around. Angel made eye-contact with me.

"I read your mind, idiot." Oh, well, there goes everything.

"I'm Fang, though. Really." I said unconvincingly.

"No, you're not." Iggy said stepping out of the bathroom. "For several reasons."

"One, you talk _way too much. _Almost Nudge-level babbling." Max said glancing at Nudge. Nudge shrugged.

"Two, Fang doesn't say 'yay'." Nudge said. "He usually nods or something. Maybe a thumbs-up if you're lucky. He doesn't even smile. Usually it's silence." She saw Gazzy start to move his hand toward her mouth and stopped.

"Three, Fang was on the other side of me when I fell asleep." Max said. "He always sleeps on the right side of the bed. It's a Fang thing."

"So, three strikes, I'm out?" I inquired. I was about to be kicked out onto the street for Scorpia to execute.

"No." Angel said firmly. "You're not like the real Fang, but we can't kick you out. Scorpia would kill you in an instant.

The room was silent, and Max got a frustrated look on her face.

"Angel's right." Max said grudgingly. "Maybe you can help us get Fang out of the lab."

"As long as I don't have to stay in another cage." ________________________________________________________________________

Fang POV

Cole and I ended up staying as far apart as possible.

Luckily the collar didn't have a shock feature, and the Taser was behind bulletproof glass. I heard a crackle overhead.

_"If you two don't start fighting, we're going to fumigate this room with Chlorine."_

"Crap." Cole said across the room.

"You can say that again." I charged at him.

I got him into a loose headlock. "Just pretend to fight with me. Draw blood." I whispered.

He nodded, a quick twitch, totally believable if I had him in a real headlock.

He 'bit' my arm just enough to draw a little blood. I let him go and he turned to 'attack' me.

I looked up into the single bullet-proof window. I could almost swear that they nodded.

* * *

Max POV

Well, we had recruited Fang II onto our hit team. So he wouldn't be shot, because he had done his job and infiltrated the flock, and so we weren't down a soldier.

But, there was a slightly huge problem.

Fang II couldn't turn invisible, or ghost through walls, like Fang.

"This is a big problem." Fang II said.

"Do I have to do more teleporting?" Alex asked.

I shook my head. "I hope not. But we'll have to fix this entire plan…"

I suddenly remembered that dream that I had forgotten. The CD from Itex HQ.

I had it in my backpack.

"But, maybe we won't have to." I said rummaging through my backpack. There it was. The shiny, circular, plastic savior of Fang.

"What's that?" Alex asked coming to stand beside me.

"A CD. It has a link to Itex's server. We have access to _all and any_ of Itex's files."

Alex's jaw dropped.

"We need Fang's laptop, the one with permanent satellite uplink. And Nudge. I could only get through everything once."

Fan II nodded and ran off to get Nudge.

Nudge ran back into the room. "Where's the computer?"

Alex pulled it out of Fang's pack. "Here. Max has the disc."

Nudge took the disc and the laptop and got through Fang's stupid password.

In minutes she was downloading files straight from the uplink in the disc.

"I'm in." She said smiling. "I hacked the security cams and ran a re-run feed of a regular day. We could walk in there and no one would notice."

"Sweet. Now, we have to locate Fang."

"His cage in room 666." She grimaced. "Why did it have to be 666? They have like, three hundred other containment rooms…"

"Can you pull up a layout?" Alex asked. "And print it off so we can map out our plan?"

"No prob."

* * *

Fang POV

After our stage fight, we got thrown back into the cages.

After the whitecoat left, Cole and I did an automatic 360.

There was another kid in the cage across from us. She looked totally normaland scared out of her head.

"Hey." I said hoarsely.

She looked up with big, wide, blue eyes like Angel's. Her face was streaked with tears. She seemed about my age, about fourteen.

"Hey." She said, her voice wavering. "What's going on here?"

Cole choked out a sadistic chuckle. "Genetic engineering. We're mutants."

She paled. "Like they ripped your DNA apart, and stuff?"

I nodded. "Yeah. They ripped our DNA apart and stuff. I'm two percent bird."

"I'm four percent wolf." Cole said.

She nodded slowly. "Bird?" She asked.

I slipped my wings out of my shirt to prove it.

"Wow." She said. She looked a little unsettled.

"I'm Cole." Cole offered. He was obviously as curious as I was to learn as much as possible about the new girl.

"Winnie." She said. "I was on my way home from school when they nabbed me."

"Created in a lab." Cole and I said in an odd unison.

Her eyes widened. "You've never been outside?"

I shook my head. "I escaped four years ago. They just got me again recently."

"I've never left." Cole said sadly. He shook his head. "But, when did you get here? Did they stick you yet?"

"They gave me some shots and I blacked out. Then I somehow ended up in a cage."

"Welcome to mutanthood." I said sarcastically. This was turning south fast. They were starting up their experiments again. With people from the outside world. People who had been _normal._ Who could have had _lives._

"You have a tag?" Cole asked. She held up her left hand. It had a bright yellow bracelet on it. Like the kind you'd get when you go to a hospital.

"What are the numbers?" This was a code we had cracked years ago.

"Eight, seven, six, four, nine, zero, two, one, three, three, five."

Eighth gene splice—feline, seventh shot in the pack—wild cat, six—bobcat, everything after that was for what abilities she would posses.

"You're a lynx." I said. "A bobcat. At least, if I read it right, you are…"

"Will it hurt?" She asked curling up. "To get my DNA switched up?"

"Depends. If it's smooth, you might not feel anything. If it's rough, get ready to pop Tylenol for the rest of your life." I said mumbling the last part.

She gulped. "I hope it's smooth."

I nodded. She definitely didn't want to end up like Ari. ________________________________________________________________________

Alex POV

Nudge printed out the map of the building, all thirty floors of it, and Max got ready with a pack of colored pencils.

"Nudge, you're purple, Iggy'll be red, Gazzy—yellow, Fang II—black, me—blue, Angel will be pink, Total will stay here, and Alex will be green. Fang will be the orange." Max said pulling some colors out.

We nodded. "Fang is held here." Nudge pointed to a room on the map that looked like any other room. Max drew an orange dot on the map.

"It looks like the nearest escape route is here." Max pointed to a big glass window in the laboratory. She circled it with the brown.

"And it looks like there's an entrance here. A ventilation grate." Max made another brown circle.

"So?" Iggy asked.

Max frowned. "We go in through the ventilation system, sneak to the elevator shaft, and go to the—whatever floor Fang's being held on."

Gazzy raised his hand. "Shouldn't we split into teams again? A distraction, hit, and recovery team? Like last time?"

"Probably." I said. "Max, Fang II and I will be the recovery team. Nudge and Angel can be our hit team. Distraction is obviously left up to Gazzy and Iggy."

"No. We should stick together." Max said. "It would make it easier to fight in a pinch."

"How about we get Nudge to take down all of their systems, infiltrate it under their code red, get Fang and get the heck outta there before the whitecoats figure out one of their hostages was nabbed?" Fang II suggested.

Max and I paused. That was pretty good. But, that was probably what they were expecting if Fang II came up with it…

I hated coming up with a strategy. You had to be unpredictable.

Hold the phone…I got it.

"What if we do this…"

* * *

Fang POV

We they coming? No. Don't think that way. Of course their coming. Max would never leave him behind.

"How are you doing?" Cole asked Winnie. She forced a chuckle.

"Just peachy."

"It'll be over soon. You'll fall asleep. Or go unconscious, or whatever it is…It won't faze you." He reassured her. She nodded.

"Thanks." She said weakly. She laid down her cage and shut her eyes. "I might as well try now."

"Good idea." I said.

Within minutes, she was asleep.

"We need to get out of here." I said to Cole. "We need to get her out of here."

"Yeah. But we need to be well rested." He shifted into his wolf form and curled up.

"Night." I said and he nodded and shut his eyes.

A whitecoat came in later and turned off the lights. He came over. He smelled horrible. Like carrion.

Jeb. Zombie Jeb.

"Come." He said through rotting lips. His breath smelled worse.

"You need some deodorant or some mouthwash. Probably both." I said to him.

He snarled. "Be quiet Fang. Or do you have a death wish?" Jeb retorted.

I rolled my eyes but kept my mouth shut. Jeb led me to a little room. Like a room in a doctor's office. There was an automatic chair there though. I shivered.

An operation room.

I have to get the heck out of here.

Jeb dragged me to the chair and slapped my hand on the armrest. A metal loop slid out and wrapped itself around my wrist.

I couldn't move. I was trapped.

Jeb grabbed my other hand despite my fighting. That hand was down too.

I kicked Jeb. He didn't move, he didn't react. Nothing. I looked where I had kicked him. A piece of metal poked out of the rip in his skin.

He was a robot in a decaying skin.

Gross.

Wait…Max's dad is a dead robot?

Okay then…

He punched me in the stomach. My air went out with a whoosh.

When I was trying to get my breath back, zombie robot Jeb grabbed my left leg and strapped me to the chair by my ankle. Then the other leg.

I was secured to the chair. I was done for.

Wait…Ghosting!

I felt myself melt through the chair, which really tickled to tell you the truth, and Jeb stood there astonished.

I went back to the holding room and found Cole and Minnie fast asleep.

I went over to their cages and tried to ghost in there to wake them up and get out.

I couldn't phase the cages.

This was a problem.

* * *

Fnick: Jay's evil!

Me: How?

Fnick: I have an expiration date, I've had to help Max when she was crying—twice, and then I had to sit next to a fat smelly guy forever, she had me in Max's dream getting cut up, then I was kidnapped and replaced by a Fang clone, then I was sentenced to fight to the death with Cole! Wait, why am I Fnick?

Me: Mistype…-giggles-

Fnick: Fix it.

Alex: I think that was the error that Nudge put in…

Fnick: Dang.

Iggy: Ha-ha.


	18. Who's your daddy?

Fang POV

The next morning, or at least when the whitecoats turned the lights on, I noticed that Cole wasn't there, and that Winnie was shivering.

Cole was probably being experimented on and Winnie was going through the DNA change.

I couldn't do one do anything about either one.

And then I couldn't get in my cage to pretend that nothing had happened.

I almost sighed, but that would have been a noise in the silent room.

Winnie stopped shivering and took a deep breath.

Oh, no. The worst part was going to happen. Her DNA unraveling…

I looked away. I heard her groan and a couple of her bones grinding together. Then there was a panting.

Almost done.

I heard her start shivering again.

Her breathing became regular.

I peeked at her. She was in the same position she had been before, but she had a little bit of brown fur at the nape of her neck. Her ears were slightly pointed, and she had slightly paw-like feet. I moved to see her back; she had a tail. It was the stubby Lynx tail, but a tail nonetheless.

Interesting…

She stirred.

"Winnie? You okay?" I asked quietly. I was still invisible. She looked around.

"Fang? Where are you?"

"Invisible. Are you okay?"

She nodded, still looking around. "I'm fine—I think." She ran a hand through her hair and stopped at the fur at her nape.

"What the—" She took a good look at herself.

"Bobcat." I reminded her. She didn't acknowledge me, she was too busy looking at her feet.

"Paws." She looked over her shoulder. "Tail," She brushed her hair behind her ears and paused again. "Pointy ears…fur…"

She lied down. "Fang, how much?"

"Looks like three percent." She nodded slowly.

"Okay…I'm a bobcat-human hybrid-thingy now?"

"Pretty much." I said and tried to open her cage.

"Can you please be visible? It's kind of unnerving to have an invisible bird-boy trying to undo my cage." She sighed. "That's a weird sentence."

"I've said a lot weirder." I reassured her. "Trust me."

Like the time I had to tell Max that Gazzy and Iggy had been experimenting with Superglue, and that Gazzy's head and Iggy's pants were stuck together. That was weird.

I changed beck to being visible and fiddled with her lock. I was almost there. Two tumblers down, one to go.

The door rattled. My eyes widened and I went invisible. Minnie looked obviously frightened.

I quietly worked with the padlock.

A whitecoat carried in a dog like thing that looked totally exhausted.

Cole.

The whitecoat carefully placed Cole in his cage and gently shut his door. He slid his padlock on, but didn't snap it shut. The whitecoat stood, looked at my cage and smiled.

"Fang. Come out." The whitecoat looked around. He turned to Winnie.

"Winnie, have you seen my son?"

Max POV

Fang had been in the Itex building for a week already.

Time to move.

Alex and Fang II would be our infiltration force.

Nudge would run the usual footage over the systems, changing the dates and times, and splicing the film for harder tracing.

Angel would give us the positions of the guards, potential threats, big baddis with brains, etc.

Iggy and Gazzy were to use their 'knockout gas' to help us get in and out without a huge hassle.

I was to kick everyone's butt.

And make sure Total wasn't going to follow us, hide in one of our packs, or in any way come on the mission.

And boy, he was not happy.

"Why can't I go? I'm a flying mutant!" He protested. "Please? I can keep up. I'll bite ankles!"

I shook my head. "No, for the—what, now? Thousandth time?"

He frowned, well, as much as he could. Being a dog and all. "You won't have to do anything! I'll bite the ankles of everybody in my way." He pouted. "Please?"

I frowned. "No. No, no, no, no, no." I turned around. "That's final."

He growled. "Please?" He squeaked.

"No."

"Please?"

"Ne."

"Please?"

"Nicht."

"Pretty please?"

"Geen."

"Please?"

"Pas une chance."

"Please? Please? Please?"

"Eìpa den." I was running out of languages to say 'no' in.

"Why not?" Total whined.

"Because I said so, I don't want to worry about you in a fight, and you won't have anything to do."

He slouched and pouted and frowned and walked away.

He almost made me want to tell him yes.

But that was almost.

He still wasn't going.

Fang POV

After a lot of confusion and trying to wake Cole up and getting nipped, we were out of there.

My dad's—it sounded weird to even think it—clearance got us through to the main office. I made Winnie and Cole invisible with me, then my dad led us out, being sure we were right behind him.

Cole saw sunlight for the first time, and he left his mark in the forest behind the Scorpia/Itex building.

Dad led us to a cabin in the forest. A homey roomy cabin with a room for each of us.

Cole went straight to 'his' room. Winnie scoped out the entire house before she crashed in the room in between mine and Cole's. I on the other hand, sat in the living room, wondering about my parents. I mean, I have my dad here, but what about my mom?

"You've grown." My dad told me when he walked in carrying a mug of coffee.

I nodded. I was totally unsure of what I should say to my dad, and whether I could trust him.

"How's Max?" He asked casually, taking a sip from his fresh coffee.

I froze. "Who?" I tried to cover up my slip.

My dad rolled his eyes. "Fang, she was your best friend in the lab? I believe her name was Maximum?"

I held my breath. "Never heard of her." I lied.

Dad sighed, but didn't ask about Max, or heaven forbid, the rest of the flock.

It was uneasily silent for a while.

"What's Mom like?" I broke the silence.

"She's—wonderful. You got her looks." He said with a smirk. Obviously. I had black hair and black eyes compared to his brown hair and gold eyes. Come to think of it, he looked kind of like Alex…

"She loved you so much. She was heartbroken when Jeb told her that you were dead." He paused and looked me in the eyes. "I never told Jeb that he had the rights to you. I tried to keep on the inside, to watch you and Max. Luckily, Alex got out of it."

I hesitated. Was he luring me? Did he really know what happened to Alex? That Max and he were twins? "You know Alex." I said more as a statement than a question, but he still answered.

"Yes, I know him. Max's brother." He hesitated. "And yours."

"What? Max is my sister?" Max was my _sister?!?!_

"I never mentioned that." He said.

"But Max and Alex are twins…"

"No, they're not. They were two separate births. Alex is fifteen and Max is fourteen. They just act like and look like twins." Dad said. "You and Alex are related, by me, but you two had separate moms. Same time though…"

That's totally insane. Max and Alex are related, then Alex and I are related, but Max and I aren't related.

I hate this family thing. Very hard to understand.

"You haven't answered my question yet." My dad pointed out.

"Sorry, what was it?"

"How Max was doing."

"Yeah, about that. I think she's okay. Just stressed?" I guessed.

"With trying to get you out?" Dad guessed.

I shrugged. "Probably."

He nodded. "Fang II should be okay. He's probably been found out by Max and Angel though."

Fang II? I was replaced. Max and Angel had made it harder for us to be replaced, so hopefully they noticed.

"I have some other things for you." Dad said. I looked at him.

"Time to tell you the 'big picture'. I've been cryptic long enough."

Alex's and Fang's dad, Max's and Alex's mom and Fang's mom. And Jeb. And the Voice.

The usual characters, right?

Fang: This is getting darker and more confusing, and you don't even have a plan.

Alex: It kind of seems like it…It's complex enough and it sounds pretty planned.

Me: Pretty good for coming up with it off the top of my head, huh?

Iggy: Sure.

Me: You can't even see it.

Iggy: I used your 'read this word, read that word' program. It's pretty good. How's Alex fifteen?  
Me: Because it was his birthday. I don't know. I just did.

Alex: I'm fourteen.

Fang: Big whoop.

Me: I'm just gonna post it now…-clicks the posty button-


	19. Reunion, Improv, and More Mutants

Max POV

"Everybody's ready to go?" I asked. They should be by now. We've been getting slower and slower with our prep.

Everybody nodded except Total, who scowled, really disappointed that he had to stay here.

"I want—" Total started for the millionth time.

"To come?" I finished. "No." I said firmly for the millionth time.

He growled and jumped onto the bed. He complained to himself, but didn't do anything.

Iggy checked his safety on the window, rigged to give us a signal when Total tried to follow us, and gave me a little nod.

"Are we clear on our plan?" I asked. They all nodded again.

"To the door!" I announced. We all filed out and walked in a big mob to the lobby.

There was something off—

Handsome men in suits, feral and beautiful women, middle-aged men with a dark and serious demeanor, and doctors were gathered in the lobby. I instantly recognized them.

Erasers. Scorpia leaders. Whitecoats. All of our enemies in one convenient place.

Too bad for them they were blocking the only way out, and the only way to Fang.

All of the Erasers simultaneously turned toward us and snarled.

Everyone else followed the Erasers' line of sight and saw us too.

Then as a big flashback to our prep-school days, the whitecoats pulled out Tasers while the more sinister looking guys pulled guns.

I just had one thing to say about that: This is _not fair._

Fang POV

THIS IS AWKWARD!

Winnie and Cole, both, had somehow ended up in my room. One on each side. I was very awkwardly trapped in my bed.

I poked Cole. He snorted and moved his hand off of my chest.

Winnie sighed and rolled over onto my leg.

I was getting overheated and numb.

"Could you guys move?" I asked quietly. Nothing.

"Ahem." I said a little louder. Nothing again.

I sighed. "GET OFF OF ME!" I yelled. Winnie woke up with a jolt and flew off of my bed. Cole didn't even flinch.

Winnie looked over to me and saw me pinned to the bed by Cole. She raised an eyebrow. And me being me, I glared.

"I'll get him." She said with a smirk that implied _I'm never going to forget this._

She pushed Cole away from me and he fell, very loudly, to the floor.

He still didn't wake up.

He could sleep through a bombing. And maybe the world ending.

And then, the best thing happened. I smelled bacon.

Cole started sniffing and soon he was out the door.

"Maybe we should have tried the bacon first." I said and she laughed.

"We'll know for next time."

"I hope that there won't _be_ a next time." I growled and stalked out of my room.

There was bacon to be eaten.

Alex POV

I swear if there was such a thing as Hell on Earth, it was most likely here. But, from Max's stories, the Schools are a pretty close second.

"Go plan ninety." Max grumbled and initiated her fight-mode.

"Plan ninety?" Fang II asked. Poor guy was as clueless as me.

"Basically that means do your own thing and knock down as many of 'em as you can." Gazzy supplied punching a nearby female Eraser.

Fang II and I nodded. That we could understand.

So we kicked Eraser butt, and knocked three of the seven Scorpia leaders on their butts. They probably won't be able to ever sit again.

Unfortunately, the whitecoats had been modified somehow, seeing as they overtook us in minutes. And we were superhuman.

We were in headlocks, handcuffs, chains, other various restraints, and had the heads of Tasers imbedded in our backs.

"You are now Scor-Tex property. Come with us or you will be disposed of."

Like we had a choice. We were kind of bound here. Scor-Tex. Great. Two evil organizations that were pretty hell-bent on destroying me and Max.

This was probably really not going to end well.

Boy, was that an understatement. The Taser happy whitecoats decided that we all should be pretty much frozen while their greatest Eraser versions picked us up and shoved us into the van.

Max and I were Tased first, followed by Fang II, Iggy, Angel, Nudge and Gazzy. They probably either didn't know about Total, or just didn't care.

He was probably our only way out. And he was trapped in his little hotel room.

The only way he probably could get out was if he called room service.

Fang POV

"Should we go look for this Max girl?" Cole asked shoveling his bacon into his mouth with fewer manners than Gazzy. And that's pretty bad.

"I want to think so." My dad, whose name is John , said. "We should set out so we can catch her before she tries to get into the Scor-Tex building."

I nodded. "She would rip that place apart. With Gazzy's and Iggy's bombs." I added as an afterthought.

I guess I forgot to mention that little tidbit of fact to my dad, and his eyes widened. "Your flock has explosives?"

"Iggy's a pyro. Gazzy's his 'pyro-in-training.'" I said with a shrug. "But the last time they used their prototype explosives, they blew the last HQ to smithereens."

Dad looked concerned. "Alright. Time to get moving then."

He looked around the cabin carefully. "Get the essentials."

Iggy's POV

We were sunk. I could already smell the antiseptic as we were loaded into the van. Soon we'd be locked in a cage with Fang.

This was not good.

The Erasers climbed in and started the van up.

We already knew our destination.

And they were more than willing to rub it in.

They'd smack our backs, hurting our wings, and laughing because we couldn't do anything. We were bound so tight we might as well be in a freaking pillowcase.

Whenever we'd hit a pothole, we'd all bounce in the back and fall over. Or if we were still on the ground, we'd almost kiss the floor.

Nudge and Gazzy were back to back holding hands and trying to help each other stay stable, but from all of their grunts and the continuous thuds, I think they keep bringing each other down.

We're in for a beating, and we haven't even reached the lab yet.

Fang POV

Max was probably already in the Scor-Tex building, wreaking havoc, taking names and kicking butt. And looking for me.

This is not good. Not good at all.

"What does this Max girl look like?" Cole asked. "Like Winnie?"

"No, Max is blond. And she's taller. She has wings like me." I paused. "But they're brown and tan and white and spotted." That's now Max always described her wings. "The rest of my flock is kind of mismatched." To say the least.

"How many?" Winnie asked.

"Seven. Without Total. Our dog."

My dad clomped into the room. He looked totally different. His brown-blond hair was spiked, he had sunglasses covering his brown eyes, and he wasn't wearing his lab coat. Instead he wore a black t-shirt and a beaten pair of black jeans.

He was like a blond-haired, brown-eyed version of me.

No wonder he's my dad.

"Time to head, gang." He announced with a slight accent. Sounded familiar.

Oh, right. He's English. He's Alex's dad. And Alex's dad is a spy, or so he told us. He's just getting into character.

We filed out the door in our tourist clothes. Cole in is football jersey, ripped to shreds jeans and baseball cap. Winnie was wearing my old shirt that my dad had run through the wash, her jeans that had amazingly survived the lab, and a ponytail that covered the points of her ears. I was in one of my favorite outfits from my pack: A MCR shirt, the black cutoff shorts of my baggy pants, and my worn to heck Convers.

We blended into the background as another group of tourists that were taking the Scor-Tex building tour.

"You're here for the tour?" A security guard asked. My dad nodded.

"What time is the next one?" He asked calmly with no trace of his accent.

"In fifteen minutes." The guard handed us all guest passes for the tour. "Meet in the lobby." He looked me in the eye. "And don't go getting into any trouble, hear?"

I nodded. "Yessir." I said smartly and my dad whacked the back of my head.

"That's trouble." He scolded and the guard nodded.

"That's what I'm talking about. Go on in." He turned back to his computer that had security camera displays on it. One of them had the lab's holding room, and the flock was in there. A quick glance at the label read room 666. The last room I was in.

I turned my gaze to where we were walking, trying not to smirk and not doing a very good job at it.

Once we got inside, and after the antiseptic smell hit me, I poked my dad and suggested a bathroom stop. He nodded.

So the four of us we walking around looking 'innocently' for a 'bathroom'.

"We're looking for room 666." I whispered to Winnie and Cole and my dad. They all nodded.

We walked all the way to the sixth floor and found a set of bathrooms. We ducked into them for cover and came out five minutes later. And what do you know. Room 666 was right there.

I opened the door and saw the cages and everything. There was my flock.

Max POV

When we were first dumped into these lousy cages, we noticed that Fang was not here. Not even a label on a cage.

But, we do know that we could have been next to a semi-Eraser and across from a bobcat girl. But they were gone.

"Max, I don't want to be experimented on again." Angel whispered from her cage on my right. She stuck her hand into my cage.

I held her hand. "I don't either, Hun. But we have to be strong."

She nodded tiredly. "When those whitecoats come in…"

The door opened. And standing there, like our dark savior, was Fang.

"Max!" He rushed over to my cage and quickly undid the lock. "You're okay. Good." He hugged me hard.

"Fang." I squeaked out. "Can't breathe." He released his bear hug on me and smiled.

"Sorry. Help?" I nodded and got to work on the locks. The rest of the flock was free almost under four minutes. So Fang and I technically broke Iggy's record.

"Go, go, go." Fang said quietly as we popped locks. "Winnie and Cole will get you out."

"Who?" Iggy asked as Gazzy and Angel ran past him.

"Friends. Go!" Fang said and shoved them out the door.

When we finished with the flock's locks we skimmed the cages, looking for other mutants. There was another bird-kid, a boy about our age, and a cheetah girl next to him who looked about Nudge's age.

"Can you get us out?" The cheetah girl asked. Fang undid their locks and I pulled them out.

"Thanks." She said. "I'm Maeve."

"Locan." The bird boy said with a half smile.

"Max and Fang." I said and led them through the maze of cages to the door. We raced through the hall to follow the rest of the flock. We looked like a group of friends who were lost.

Maeve held Locan's hand through all of this like he was the last tie to reality. He didn't seem to mind, though.

Luckily for us, Maeve and Locan were wearing normal clothes, not the hospital gowns we wore in the School. That would have made getting away even harder than we had planned.

But, the security guards had seen us getting the crap out of the holding room.

Fang, a man who looked a lot like me and Alex and two other mutants were ignored by the security as they went after us.

"Max!" Fang called loudly. "There you are!" He walked over making an attempt to look cheerful. I was trying not to laugh at him.

"Fang! Sorry we're late." I said giving him a quick hug. The security guards looked confused at our improvised acting.

"And this is your adopted family?" Fang asked releasing himself from my friendly hug to look at Nudge and Angel, who had well put on poker faces. They each shook his hand and looked like they had no clue who he was.

By now, the guards we seriously doubting that we were the culprits.

Now, the girl mutant was getting into it. "Hi. I'm Fang's cousin, Winnie." She held her hand out to me and I shook it politely.

"Max. Nice to meet you." I said and looked over her shoulder to the last unknown mutant. "Who's your friend?" I asked gesturing.

"That's Cole. He's pretty shy around people unless it's required." She laughed and all the tension around the room from the guards, vanished. All the suspicion from the guards vanished too, even if Angel had a part in it.

We all started for the door, but the man in black that was next to Cole stopped us.

"Aren't we here for the tour?" He said with a slight accent. He looked at the group of teens. Fang, Cole and Winnie just laughed.

I glanced around at my flock. Everyone looked relieved at not being locked up anymore, but Alex was frozen in the corner.

"Alex?" I called. He blinked and turned toward me.

"Yeah?"

"What's wrong?"

"I think I'm hallucinating. I see my dad." He looked over toward the man and froze again. "Yep. Hallucinating."

"Your dad?"

"John Rider." Alex confirmed and the man swiveled his head back toward Alex.

He looked a little confused.

"Alex?" He asked skeptically. Alex nodded.

"Son."

And happy ending.

Fang: I'm 'cheerful'. Pff.

Alex: My dad! -hugs dad-

Iggy: More people! Agghhh!

Me: Yeah. Lots, huh. Maeve, Locan, Fang II, John, Winnie and Cole.

And I can't even keep track of the whole flock. I feel like I'm neglecting Nudge, Gazzy, Iggy, Angel and Total! I'm going to overload myself again.

Fang: Kill some of 'em off. Just not Max. You can kill Iggy though.

Iggy: That's nice.

Fang: -shrugs-

Me: Boys...Grow up.


	20. Getaway? Of course not!

Max POV

After the reunion, Maeve and Tocan left on their way. Then John had some stuff for the flock and Cole and Winnie, courtesy of MI6. All shoved into one convenient backpack.

"This is a laser. Don't use it unless you really need to." It looked like a pen, one of those twist kinds. John twisted the backend and a laser shot out and made a hole in the ground next to Gazzy's foot.

"Awesome!" He said quietly and took the laser happily.

He reached into his wallet next. "This is an infinite credit card. MI6 will pay it off. Try not to lose it." He handed it to Fang. The King of losing stuff.

I reached over and took it away from Fang. "I'll keep this."

Fang rolled his eyes. "You lose the TV remote and you suddenly become incapable of keeping track of things."

"So you understand." I said and smiled at him. He sighed.

John laughed at us and took out another thing out of a backpack. It was a whole bunch of cell phones and chargers.

"What are those?" Gazzy asked. "Disguised grenade? Concealed knife?"

"Nope. Untraceable cell phones." He handed everyone a cell phone.

Winnie looked ecstatic. "This is my old phone, but cooler! It even has the same sticker on the back! And—" She clicked a couple buttons. "It even has my old friends' phone numbers!"

Cole didn't even look at his. He just pocketed it. "I already know everything in it. It doesn't have that much data."

"Just by touching it?" Nudge asked. He nodded. "You and I have the same mutation then!" She started to tell him the whole Institute thing, so I tuned her out.

Iggy by now was frustrated with not being able to see the screen, so he got Fang to read everything. Then Fang found the read-aloud button on Iggy's phone and let Iggy goof.

Mine was lime green and had a full keyboard. "So we can use the internet?"

John nodded. "As long as you're in an internet zone, or link up with a computer." He reached into his backpack again. "Speaking of computers, I heard you guys lost your old one."

"It was at the old house." Fang confirmed.

John pulled out a fancy-schmancy new laptop. It looked like someone had taken an Apple laptop and tossed steel plate onto the outside and then reworked the circuits.

"A Frankenstein laptop." Fang said taking it.

"Is it untraceable too?" Alex asked in a small voice.

"Courtesy of Smithers." John answered smiling happily. "But I bet you already guessed that." Alex gave a little laugh that suggested that he had.

An untraceable cell phone, an untraceable laptop, an infinite credit card, and a pen laser.

"Anything else?" I asked. I didn't think the flock could handle many more gadgets.

"And is does this laptop have permanent linkup with a scrambler code?" Fang asked turning the computer on. "And do we need a battery pack?"

"It's solar powered." John answered. "And I think Smithers wrote a note on its desktop."

Fang nodded and started checking it out.

Gazzy and Iggy were almost crowding John though, probably looking for more gadgets.

"And I have some stuff for you two." John looked into his bag again. "Ah,"

He pulled out a huge bundle of wires and circuits and junk like Best Buy had exploded.

John plopped it into Iggy's hands. "Bomb materials?" He asked Gazzy.

"Oh, yeah. Enough to make a couple Big Boys." Gazzy's mouth was slack.

"Keep that for when we need it, boys." I said carefully. "And, given Scorpia, that might be pretty soon."

"Alright." Iggy said quickly, like he hadn't even heard me. "Let's get to work Gaz."

Nope. He hadn't even heard me.

3rd person POV

After John handed out gadgets, they headed to a cabin hidden away in the forest area behind the Itex building.

Fang plopped down on the couch as soon as he got over there. In the next half a minute, he was asleep and lightly snoring.

Max rolled her eyes as she passed the couch. "Lazy bum."

"Am not." Fang muttered and rolled over.

"Yeah, sure." Max said going into the kitchen.

Nudge followed Angel around the house talking to her. Cole had just entered the kitchen with a couple of slamming doors and a yelp from Max.

"Watch where you're slamming those doors you numbskull!" Max said sharply. "My hand was there!"

"Well, you coulda seen that I was shuttin' it! You could moved ya poor little hand!" Cole retorted. There was a crack of sound and a thud suggesting that Max slapped Cole.

Max stomped out of the kitchen with three packets of beef and went to sit down on the couch.

She immediately jumped back up and dropped her beef packs.

"Uh-oh…Max!" Iggy yelled outside. "MAX!"

She ran from the living room and was out the door in an instant.

"What—" Max started.

Outside was a bunch of Scorpia thugs. Some looked like Erasers, some like they were on steroids. Others still were dressed up like SWAT.

They had surrounded the cabin. Iggy and Gazzy stood clutching their bombs, ready to make something go boom when Max gave the call.

She was frozen for a moment. Then she put her hand to her mouth and whistled.

Two short high notes and a long low note. To get the rest of everybody out to fight.

"Iggy, Gazzy. On three, U and A," Max breathed. They barely nodded. A twitch.

"One." She said as the others were running out of the house. Iggy and Gazzy leaped into the air.

Max unfolded her wings.

"Alex, Fang, get Cole and Winnie." Max said and launched herself at an Eraser.

Alex grabbed Cole and shot into the air, beating his wings as hard as he could to get them to stay aloft. Fang hefted Winnie into his arms and spread his wings, letting Alex get airborne.

The Eraser Max had launched herself at punched her in the jaw and she spun and hit the ground.

"Max!" Fang yelled when she hit. He looked around frantic, and left Winnie on the porch.

"Nudge, Gazzy! Get Max! I'll cover for you." Fang yelled as he flew over to the Eraser that had gotten Max.

The Eraser stared blankly at him for a moment, then smirked.

"You're dead, Birdboy." The Eraser growled and cracked his knuckles.

Fang glared. "Ari. Really. I thought Itex would have let you take your dirtnap."

Ari growled and looked down at Max. "Maybe she'll go first." Ari raised a boot.

Fang launched himself at Ari. "You'll never touch her, you—"

Ari swiped Fang aside, and he landed with a thud. Ari's foot came down.

Iggy POV

Max and Fang were down in the lab. The rest of us were shoved our own large cages. And from the feel of it, it was a dog cage. Which should have held ya know, _dogs_.

But Itex doesn't work like that.

At least we were all bunched up together so that we were in arm's reach.

"Iggy, how can you be so calm?" Winnie asked. He voice sounded rough. Probably from crying. "This is scary."

"I am scared. Its just that," I paused. "Someone has to feel like everything's going to be alright. And with Fang and Max missing, Alex not having a clue what this is like, Cole being all clammed up, and you crying, I feel like it as to be me."

I heard a swishy sound, like long hair moving. "I'm sorry, Iggy." I felt her hand on my shoulder. "That's really nice of you."

I reached my hand out, hoping to touch her cheek. "There's been worse situations that we've gotten out of." I felt my hand touch her cheek, and it was moist. She had been crying. "This is nothing."

There was a cackle. "Dis is _nussing_? Haf you learned anything, you mutant?"

Winnie withdrew her hand from my shoulder and she gasped.

"Ter Borcht!" Nudge said startled.

"I vill now destroy de Snickuhs bahrs!" Gazzy whispered from his cage next to me in ter Borcht's voice.

I couldn't help but laugh a little.

"Vhat are you laughing at? You are going be exterminated."

"That's what you said last time." Nudge shot back. "And we got away."

"Yes, but you veren't here." I heard a snap and wished again for my vision to be back. I hated this, when I had no clue what was going on because I was blind.

"But—" Nudge started to protest. There was a crackle of something, probably electricity, and a thud.

"Nudge!" Gazzy and Angel yelled together.

My heart skipped a beat. Someone had gotten Nudge with electricity.

They would NOT live through that.

I started to reach probe the cage, looking for the latch. I found it, and got it open. I launched from the cage and stood there. Waiting for someone to start to approach.

"How—how did he manage to escape?" ter Borcht yelled, startled. "Get him!"

This time, I heard footsteps. And they were surrounding me.

"Winnie, tell me what's going on!" I said, hearing the distinctive 'whoosh' of an incoming punch. I swung to one side, grabbed the guy's arm and flipped him onto his back.

"On your left!" Winnie said. I ducked. There was a 'swish' that sounded like fabric. Someone had thrown a kick. I reached up, grabbed their leg and broke their knee.

They shrieked and went down.

"Your right!" Winnie said. I heard a crackle. Electricity. Either a Taser, or a stun gun. Probably a Taser. I leaped away.

Luckily, this lab had a tall ceiling. I heard a 'snick'.

"Iggy! Cherries! They're in your left pocket!" Gazzy yelled up to me. "Give 'em to me! I'll throw 'em!" I pulled the bombs out and flew over Gazzy's cage, dropping them in.

Two more 'snick's. There were flapping wings now and running feet.

"That's right, you cowards! Run!" Nudge yelled to the people running away.

"Hmm. They never seem to improve their security." Angel remarked.

"Holy crap!" Cole said. "You guys rock!"

"We've had a lot of practice, sadly." I remarked, and Winnie was next to me.

"That was cool. I never knew you could fight like that."

I laughed. "Lot of practice." I repeated.

"We need to get Max and Fang." Angel said.

"Do you know where they are, Angel? From ter Borcht?"

"Not exactly. I just know this time."

Alex snorted. "Well, what are you waiting for? Let's go!"

Okay, sorry I haven't updated in forever.

Fang: uh-huh. And?

Me: hope you enjoyed this chapter?

Fang: *ahem*

Me: -sigh- Obviously this isn't the end of it. I was intending this to be the last chapter, but I just couldn't find a way to end it! So, the story goes on.

Alex: And if you find the quote, you will get mentioned in the author's note…

Me: You'll never find it, unless you're a Maximum ride addict that has read book three almost twenty times. Like me.

Fang: I found it. Can I get mentioned?

Me: It was your idea to put that in.

Fang: so?

Me: -facepalm-

Iggy: I found it too!

Fang and me: But you're blind!  
Iggy: So?

Alex: He did find it…with that 'dragon' program…

Me: fine…if you find the quote, you will be mentioned in my A/N with Fang and Iggy.

Alex: Not me, because I want nothing to do with you rabid fangirls…

Me: that's insulting, Alex.

Alex: So?

Me: Oh, brother. *Smacks him*

Alex: OW!

Fang and Iggy: Alex got served! *laughing*

Alex: Grrr. *glares*

Me: Oh the testosterone! I'm leaving. Don't kill each other. *exits*

R&R if you want to be mentioned in my A/N!


	21. Twisty Plot Twists are Twisty

Me: I HAVE AN IDEA FOR THE STORY I THINK! The people who have reviewed with ideas (you know who you are) have helped so much!

Alex: -hugs people who get hugs from Alex-

Fang: And she might actually know what she's talking about with some of

her stiff now, especially the romance scenes.

Iggy and Alex: She got a_ boyfriend!_

Me: -blushes- -shoves all the boys in random (and convenient) closet- so on with the story so that I don't forget it!

Alex POV

Angel was leading us up and down and around and in circles through the hallways. She must have been reading the minds of rats or something that were in the ventilation shafts next to us.

She stopped suddenly at one and Cole ran into her, and Winnie ran into him. "We're here." She said.

There was a big steel door that had about eleven locks on it and smoke was pouring out of the gap between the bottom of the door and the floor.

How cliché.

"Is blowing the door up an option?" Gazzy asked.

"Only if you want your birdy-butt to end up in a crate again." Cole replied.

"Iggy, do you have your lock pick kit?" Nudge asked.

"Yeah, way ahead of you." He had it out and open on the floor, gliding his fingers over the tools like they were made of ultra fragile glass. "Let's just see what kind of locks we have on this door," He touched his left hand to the door to feel for the lock, but couldn't slide it around on the door face.

"The door is so cold," Iggy said with his voice wobbling. "I think my hand froze to it."

Ari POV

Max was here again. Passed out in her little doggie carrier, waiting for the end to come. Fang was in the Room already, getting a makeover.

I laughed to myself. Max was mine. Fangie was out of the way. He wouldn't be able to face her with his 'transformation'.

Max's blond-streaked hair was all over the floor around her head like an incomplete halo, and with her wings slightly unfolded behind her, she looked like the imperfect angel that Itex had shunned. That's why they made the flock. Max was imperfect, and they had been trying to reach perfection with every addition. With every try they came closer. They gave up with Angel though, with her bouncing all of their perfections away and making her name ironic in more ways than one.

Dad came in and saw me sitting in front of Max's cage. He smiled sadly. "Ari, she's gone from you. You're back to yourself. Just leave her be and let her get her rest."

I snorted. "But Fang is gone now. There's nothing to stop me from having her."

Jeb sighed, but let it drop. We'd had this conversation every twenty minutes since she arrived in the carrier to the Room. He went to his desk and found his phone. He hit a speed dial number and said only two words into it. "She's ready."

Fang POV

They dragged me away from Max and into another room. It had barely anything in it, except a bed (that looked like a medieval torture device) and a cabinet that was next to the bed. I started to fight more and more, but I just kept getting closer to that damn bed. Someone hit a spot just to the right of my neck and everything in the room went fuzzy for a moment. I opened my eyes to see that I had been strapped to the torture-bed. "Damn it."

A whitecoat appeared next to the bed. "Bad boy. Don't you know that it's a sin to swear?" I rolled my eyes and shot him the bird. They gasped like they were offended. "My dear, Fang. Behave." The whitecoat came into my view and I saw the face of the Director, Max's fake whack-job mom. She laughed evilly, holding a syringe. "If you behave it won't hurt a bit."

I spit at her. It hit its target right in the eye. And the needle came down upon its target, a very private spot, and let's just say I felt a sharp pain, but then I passed right out.

I woke up in a new bed. In a new room. Surrounded by whitecoats. Two took my arms and hoisted my out of bed. One opened the door, and they led me out, letting me half walk, half be carried to whatever destination they had in mind. There was a whitecoat at the end of the hall in front of a big steel door that looked like something out of a b-rated sci-fi flick. Clouds of steam were rolling out from under the door and there were bolts and locks that I didn't have the time to really see. The guard-whitecoat used a thick rubber glove to open the door and let us inside.

It must have been a hundred below in that room. It was a freezer, literally. There were cryogenic chambers filled with sleeping figures. Actually, they might not have been sleeping, if you catch my drift.

The whitecoats, who bundled up in some parka-looking coats, were leading me down a narrow hallway, lined with those freaky chambers, to an open chamber. I was only in my lovely thin-cloth hospital gown, and boy was I mad at them. They could have spared a parka thing for me.

Hell, I would have been fighting and running around and screaming and flying and kicking ass, but my arms were handcuffed behind my back with what felt like _ice_, and I had a needle in my back, pumping sedative into my veins. I was surprised I could walk.

"Throw him in." The whitecoat on the left said. I barely felt being lifted into the chamber, having the mask put on my face, the pierce of the tubing as it went under my skin. Nope. No feeling at all.

I was too busy staring down at myself.

Because the last I checked, I was pretty sure that I wasn't a girl.

Alex POV

This wasn't good. Iggy's hand was frozen to the most cliché door ever? I sighed.

"No one else touch it." I said.

"We need to heat it up if we want to keep Iggy's hand." Nudge said. "Maybe I can use my magnet powers to make the door heat up? I've heard that electricity and magnets can do that. It was on this really cool show called Mythbusters. Or maybe it was How it's Made. I think it was the Mythbusters though." She rattled on and on until Gazzy clamped his hand over her mouth, but she had a point.

"Gaz, do you have any batteries?" Iggy asked, pulling off his pack to rummage through it. "And take one of the pipe bomb's electric counter off, there's a good sized one in there." Gazzy pulled out a flashlight, the pipe bomb and a good amount of other explosive things and extracted their batteries.

"We need wires." I said. Iggy nodded and reached into his pack to produce a whole assortment of colored wires. He tossed the bundle over to Gazzy, who began to hook the batteries into a chain and attached it to the door. It froze into place when it hit the surface.

"Oh dude." Gazzy whispered.

After a few minutes of Iggy constantly getting more and more twitchy, the door began to drip and whole pieces of ice slabs began to fall. The door was slowly heating up.

Angel sighed. "Can't we just get something flammable and make sparks and catch it on fire? That would be faster."

Everyone exchanged glances and patted Angel on the back. Cole stripped off his hoodie, which Gazzy threw sparks on and created a roaring fire. He kicked the flaming hoodie over to the door.

"We'll be in in no time."

Max POV

I was alone in a room. I was in the only cage in an otherwise empty room. And I had no freaking clue where everybody else was. I stuck my fingers through the bars and unlocked my cage. And as I was climbing out, the door opened and a whitecoat walked in. They were in the shadow, but I could tell who it was. The Director.

"Maximum Ride," she said starting to circle the room, "It's been awhile."

"Not too long. And not long enough." I snapped.

She sighed and took out a syringe full of blood. "Do you know whose blood this is Max?" She grinned coldly.

My blood ran cold. "Fang's?"

She nodded. "Too bad that you won't be seeing him again." I flew across the room and tackled her to the floor.

"What do you mean '_I won't be seeing him again.'_?" I snarled.

She merely laughed and pulled another syringe, not full of blood, out of her lab coat. This one she jabbed into my arm.

"I mean you won't be seeing _him_ again." She cackled evilly as everything went dark. Again.

So I think I can get something rolling out of this huh?

Fang: …

Alex: -is laughing-

Iggy: A flaming hoodie and my hand is stuck to the cliché door? WHAT?

Fang: …I'm a-

Iggy: That was a good twister there.

Max: I don't like you anymore, Jay.

Me: Aw.

Fang: -leaves-

Iggy: -can't leave because his hand is frozen to the door- -falls asleep-

Alex: AND NOTHING BAD HAPPENED TO ME IN THIS CHAPTER!

Me: Oh, just you wait. -smiles evilly-

Alex: Oh, $%*&.

R&R


End file.
